When the young rockers wouldn’t come to the blues, Fat Possum simply brought the blues to the young rockers. A A*s Pocket Full of Whiskey proved to everyone who heard it that the two worlds had more in common than anyone had previously thought possible. Recorded in four hours in a rented hunting lodge just ten miles from where R.L. Burnside lived in the North Mississippi woods, A*s Pocket is a collaboration between Burnside’s longtime family band and New York City trio The John Spencer Blues Explosion. The album burns on the reciprocal exchange of the punks and the bluesman, the city and the country, the young and the old; or, as R.L. later commented, “Better bring your earplugs.” Burnside and company lend the Blues Explosion some much-needed experience and depth, while the Blue Explosion inject an unbridled vitality into the old bluesman. The bands clearly enjoyed each other’s company, as each group eggs on the other’s sense of fun and competition. Witness the stampede of dueling drums summoned by Russell Simins and Cedric Burnside on “Snake Drive”; or the cauldron of guitar stewed by Judah Bauer and Kenny Brown on “Poor Boy.” Then there’s the closer, “Have You Ever Been Lonely,” which features John Spencer and R.L. Burnside hollering a routine to each other over the racket: the older showman and the younger showman, generational forces merged and throwing down a storm.