James Olin Burns, born February 27, 1943 in Dublin, Mississippi, is a soul‑blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He learned guitar on the Hilliard Cotton Plantation, sang in a church choir, and moved to Chicago at age 12, where he joined the Medallionaires. His breakthrough came with the 1972 single "I Really Love You", later listed among Northern soul’s top 500 in 2000. After a hiatus, James Olin Burns returned in the early 1990s, recording Leaving Here Walking (1996) for Delmark, earning a National Association of Independent Record Distributors award; he followed with Night Time Again (1999) and Live At B.L.U.E.S. (2007). Burns also notably toured and collaborated with his brother Eddie on the 2002 album Snake Eyes.
