Music: Luther Dickinson - Acoustic Tribute To Jim Dickinson
Beautiful music by his son for a man who will be greatly missed.
Listen here. Read about Mr. Dickinson here.
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Music: Jim Dickinson Benefit Concert
A benefit concert honoring Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson will take place in Memphis, Tennessee at the Peabody Skyway on August 8th at 6pm. The Jim Dickinson benefit night will feature performances by John Hiatt, Jimmy Davis, Sid Selvidge with Jimmy Crosthwait, Amy LaVere, Shannon McNally, and the North Mississippi Allstars. The event will have a cash bar and tickets are $125 per person. Jim Dickinson is recovering from heart surgery and donated funds will pay medical bills and provide living costs for the expected nine month recovery period. If you’re interested in tickets, please call Elizabeth Montgomery at Ardent Studios. She can be reached at (901) 725-0855. Hurry – tickets are almost sold out, and the engagement is very limited!
God bless ya and we wish you a speedy recovery Mr. Dickinson.
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Music: South Memphis String Band
Luther Dickinson, Jimbo Mathus and Alvin Youngblood Hart doin' the Furry Lewis tune, A Dog Named Blue, back in May. Hope ya'll dig this as much as we do. Check 'em out here.
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Music: South Memphis String Band
Ya'll ain't gonna wanna miss this! South Memphis String Band kicks off their tour next week (4/23) in Dallas. If ya ain't already heard, this is Jimbo Mathus (Squirrel Nut Zippers), Alvin Youngblood Hart (Grammy-winning bluesman) and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars). It's their first tour and they're truckin' through the south and the eastern U.S. for about a month. Don't sleep on this! It's a rare opportunity to see three amazin' talents like these fellas together. They'll be performin' acoustic sets of good ol' Mississippi foot stompin' music. Check the dates and hear a couple of their songs here.
Here's the low-down from their myspace:
The three friends, bound by Memphis and North Mississippi roots, will tour ahead of recording their debut album later this year. So far only two songs have been unveiled, both at the trio’s MySpace page myspace.com/southmemphisstringband. So the April and May dates will be an opportunity for fans to get in on the ground floor. Although they’d known each other for years, the trio’s musical spirit gelled last year when they recorded a yet-unreleased album with Luther’s father, legendary producer Jim Dickinson, called New Moon Jellyroll Freedom Rockers. The South Memphis String Band was greatly influenced by the Mississippi Sheiks, Gus Cannon & the Memphis Jug Band and other string bands and jug bands of their ilk, as well as Mississippi Delta and Hill Country blues. They will travel with a passel of guitars, mandolins, banjos, lap steel guitars and harmonicas.
Luther Dickinson is lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi Allstars as well as lead guitarist for the Black Crowes. The son of producer Jim Dickinson was born and raised in West Tennessee, where he played concerts and gained recording experience with his father and brother, Cody. The family moved to the hills of North Mississippi in 1985. Luther befriended the musical families of Otha Turner, R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. They were the inspiration for Luther and Cody to form the North Mississippi Allstars in ‘96. The Allstars have been nominated for three Grammy Awards in the Best Contemporary Blues category. Luther produced two Otha Turner albums: Everybody Hollerin' Goat and From Senegal To Senatobia. Luther was recently featured in Rolling Stone as one of the “New Guitar Gods.” He has recorded with the Replacements, Mojo Nixon, Toy Caldwell, Billy Lee Riley, John Medeski and Robert Randolph (as The Word), John Hiatt and Jon Spencer, in addition to Turner, Burnside and the elder Dickinson.
Though born in Oakland, California, Alvin “Youngblood” Hart had family connections in Carroll County, Miss., and spent time there in his childhood, hearing his relatives’ stories of Charlie Patton. Influenced by the country blues, Hart is known as one of the world's foremost practitioners of that genre. He’s also a faithful torchbearer for the ‘60s and ‘70s guitar rock of his youth, as well as Western Swing and vintage country. His music has been compared to that of artists ranging from Leadbelly and Spade Cooley to Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. Hart plays acoustic and electric guitar as well as banjo and sometimes the mandolin. Bluesman Taj Mahal once said of him, “The boy has got thunder in his hands.” In 2003, Hart's album Down in the Alley was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. In ‘05, Hart received a Grammy Award for his contribution to Beautiful Dreamer — The Songs of Stephen Foster. He was featured in the Wim Wenders film The Soul of a Man, which was part of Martin Scorsese’s 2003 PBS series “The Blues,” and also appeared in the documentary Last of the Mississippi Jukes.
Guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and producer Jimbo Mathus grew up in Clarksdale, Miss. He first caught the public’s ear in the 1990s with the hyper-ragtime vaudeville act the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Since then, he has released many recordings of his own in a style he describes as Mississippi Music. “Basically,” Mathus says, “I combine the myriad styles of deep roots music in a type of alchemy. Blues, country, gospel and soul all go into the equation equally.” His last outing, Knockdown South, was released on his own label and received much critical acclaim, including the No. 2 spot on Honest Tune magazine’s Best of 2005 list. He runs the Delta Recording Service, a studio based in Clarksdale, and is sought out by many artists seeking the old-school style of recording. One such artist was Elvis Costello, who recorded his Grammy nominated “Monkey to Man” single in Mathus’ studio in 2005. He has produced two blues CDs that were nominated for Blues Music Awards in 2006, Duwane Burnside’s Under Pressure and Big George Brock’s Club Caravan. Additionally, he contributed vocals on the North Mississippi Allstars’ 2006 Grammy-nominated Electric Blues Watermelon. Mathus sums it up: “I break down walls and stereotypes with my music. I confuse people. I use Mississippi music, which is renegade music at heart, as my inspiration and motivation. I use it as a tool to reach people, to express my own feelings and continue to express those that came before me. I keep the old stories alive while they help keep me alive.”
Mathus says, “Luther, Youngblood Hart and myself have been musical co- conspirators for over a decade. It is only fitting that we should come together with acoustic instruments and perform Mississippi music.”
We'll be checkin' out the Austin show on the 24th, so come on out and bear witness to this musical force of nature.
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Music: Southern Fried Freight Train Fulla Boogie
Meant to post this yesterday but it took an extra day to recover. Lil' too much bourbon, not enough ice. We were blessed to catch a couple of the finest bands in the land on Friday night when North Mississippi Allstars and Hill Country Revue rolled through town. Modern Mississippi Hill Country 'lectric blues and rock & roll. If you haven't seen these ol' boys play live, you just ain't lived. Hill Country Revue started the show with Cody Dickinson - brother of Luther, son of Jim, and drummer for North Mississippi Allstars - slingin' an electrified washboard 'round his neck hooked up to some effects pedals. He proceeded to scratch out some wicked sonic vibrations like a whiskey-bent hillbilly Hendrix. With Chris "Big" Chew and Ed "Hot" Cleveland layin' down the funky gut-thumpin' foundation, the dual guitars of Kirk Smithhart and Cody Dickinson - yep, he does it all - soared in and out and settled into a head-noddin', ass-movin' groove that had the capacity crowd shakin' what their mama's gave 'em. Singer Daniel Coburn lit in with a sweet southern drawl, understated and perfectly fit to tie up the whole bundle. The Allman-esque jam "You Can Make It" had the hippies spinnin' and the rednecks grinnin' and the dirty, low-end crawl of "Lets Talk About Me And You" had everyone in a trance-like sway. Big brother Luther helped the boys out on a few songs showin' why he is one of the best guitarists walkin' this earth and why the Black Crowes are no dummies.
Then came time for North Mississippi Allstars to do their thing: whippin' everybody in the whole damn joint into a booty shakin' frenzy. There are few bands that can get a crowd movin' like these boys do. They don't just know their history, they own it and are doin' something brand new with it. Luther's slide is masterful. He makes the guitar smile and weep and sing. Magic freakin' fingers and a soul full of groove. While Chris "Big" Chew and Cody Dickinson supremely serve as the locomotive powering this southern fried freight train full of boogie. From start to finish, their set is a party - a southern summer porch gatherin' of friends, kickin' out hot, sweaty, foot-stompin' jams. There wasn't a person standin' still. Towards the end of their set the fellas from Hill Country Revue came back out to jam with everybody smilin', noddin' and having a good time. And Luther pulled out a homemade cigar box guitar with two strings and made that baby howl. That's right, a ceeeegar box! Here's a tease that my brother took. As I walked out of the venue, my face hurt. And I realized I had just smiled constantly for four hours, just from watchin' these boys play. Man. It's that kinda groove. It'll put a little warm southern sunshine in your soul and some shake in that ass.
Do yourself a favor and catch 'em when they come your way. You will be so glad you did. Here are their tour dates: NMA Hill Country Revue
And check out their pages: NMA Hill Country Revue
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