Lawsuit Filed Against Fat Possum Records

Kenny Malone, the common-law son of North Mississippi Hill Country blues great Junior Kimbrough, has filed suit against Fat Possum Records, label President and co-founder Matthew Johnson, and several other entities associated with the company, in federal court. Malone, who played drums in the Soul Blues Boys, his father's band, has also performed professionally as Kenny Kimbrough and Kint Kimbro.

According to a report in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Malone claims that the label never asked his permission or paid him for performances he recorded with his father, David "Junior" Kimbrough. Malone alleges that over several years, the defendants recorded, produced and published Kimbrough's musical performances and compositions, and sold them to the public, as well as for use in movies like Black Snake Moan.

Malone also claims that his likeness was used without permission in a "commercial documentary," most likely Robert Palmer's Deep Blues film, based on his book of the same name. He is asking for punitive damages, full accounting by the label, future royalties, and the other standard pie-in-the-sky requests of the spurned musician.

Malone appeared on all five of his father's Fat Possum releases, including the classic All Night Long, and the posthumous Meet Me In The City, released a year after Kimbrough's death in 1998. For their part, attorneys for Fat Possum claim that they own the copyrights to the material in question. The case has been assigned a judge will go to trial soon, so we'll let you know how it turns out. Stay tuned….

Junior Kimbrough photo courtesy Fat Possum Records

The Reverend's Update (10/09/08):

Justin Showah of Hill Country Records emailed me with a couple of corrections to this post:

"Malone is Kimbrough's biological son, not his common-law son as you maintain. Also, Malone did not appear at all in Palmer's Deep Blues. Drummer Calvin Jackson (father of Cedric Burnside) played with Junior that day because a car had fallen on Kinney's foot the night before at the juke joint!"

Justin adds, "the film in question is You See Me Laughin in which Malone appears."

Thanks to Justin for straightening us out!