Ever-changing line-up but still the same cracking roots rock from the Dickinson Brothers and their guests.
North Mississippi All Stars (NMAS) were founded in 1996 in, not surprisingly, Mississippi, in a little town in, not surprisingly, the north of the state, named Hernando. Two brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson (originally from Tennessee and sons of famed record producer Jim Dickinson) are respectively predominantly the drummer and guitarist (and together producers) of the band: a band they formed initially with bassist Chris Chew, who stayed until 2015. They have produced records with a rotating group of guest artists (largely from the northern Mississippi hill country) in the blues and southern rock genre, which over time has diversified to include roots rock and americana. They have won or been nominated for several music awards for their albums, including Grammys (one win) and Blues Music, and have featured individually and collectively on albums by several artists (notably as the backing band on John Hyatt’s “Master of Disaster” album, while Luther played with The Black Crowes for several years in the late noughties). Their influences range from Grateful Dead to Canned Heat to blues masters such as RL Burnside, whose son Duwayne has been a major contributor to their albums , and Junior Kimbrough.
The NMAS debut album was released in 2001, “Shake Hands with Shorty” (a reference to Chew, a childhood friend) and it won Best Debut Blues Album. Twenty one albums later including seven official live and bootleg albums and four EPs, the band releases its first for three years in the form of an homage to their debut and a celebration of 25 years since its release; it features, aside from new permanent band members Joey Williams (of Blind Boys of Alabama fame on vocals and guitar) and Ray Holloman (on bass and occasional steel guitar), several guests, including Grahame Lesh, son of Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead) on scintillating bass on one track, the aforementioned Burnside (originally a short term band member), steel guitar maestro Kashiah Hunter on four tracks, and the outstanding Robert Kimbrough Sr (son of Junior) on a fine solo on what is called a cotton patch blues guitar (named after his father, the inventor of the style).
So what about the music on the new album “Still Shakin'”? NMAS were never just a blues band, though Mississippi Fred McDowell, Burnside and Kimbrough have been ongoing influences, reflected by the recording of a number of their songs – southern rock and roots rock were flavourings that announced them as a somewhat genre-bending group, and they became known for self-styled Modern Mississippi Music.“Still Shakin’” continues the earliest vibe of “Shake Hands with Shorty” but with added what they call ‘Sacred Steel’ stylings from Hunter, and also from Williams. The album kicks off with a frenetic version of Robert Johnson’s ‘Preachin’ Blues’ featuring some brilliant guitar work from Dickinson (Luther) and Williams, and some outstanding drumming from Dickinson (Cody). ‘Stay all night’ is not the most sophisticated song lyrically (you can guess the subject from the title), but the guitar interplay (above mentioned cotton patch guitar and and steel) with Holloman’s Hammond B3 is captivating.
The album overall is a foot-tapping fun listen, in keeping with the pledge to replicate the feel of their debut and although lyrically it may not resonate particularly with all AUK listeners, it is seriously fine playing and singing – the shuffling ‘My mind is Rambling’ for example is a showcase for the supporting vocals of sisters Sharisse and Shontelle Norman, and then again on the title track with its somewhat psychedelic fuzzy guitar end. The album highlight is probably the fast-paced gospel exhortation ‘Pray for Peace‘, which is a fine song, a call for social justice which starts off “Look back on crossroads seen in our grandfathers’s lives / A lot of change has come but we are still not wise” with a jaunty rhythm and some fine guitar from Dickinson and Williams again, and wonderful bass lines from Grammy-winner Trae Pierce. With its call and response chorus it is the kind of song that might play well in Sunday church.
‘KC Jones (Part 2)’ is a lovely loping song that updates the KC Jones story from the debut album, with Grahame Lesh replicating the sympathetic bass playing of his father in Grateful Dead, to whom the record is dedicated, all overlaid with fine acoustic guitar, and clavinet from Williams. Burnside takes a turn on his father’s ‘Poor Boy‘, with lead vocals and guitar, a lovely syncopated blues rocker. The final four tracks benefit from the evocative Sacred Steel playing of Kashiah Hunter, starting with the funky backbeat of the traditional ‘Don’t let the Devil Ride’ and then presiding imperiously over the slow instrumental ballad that ends the album, ‘Monomyth ( Folk Hero’s Last Ride)’, a lovely though atypical NMAS track, that Luther wrote to recognize the 15th anniversary of their dad’s passing.
When you have established a track record for Modern Mississippi Music why try to change the make-up of your albums? And NMAS don’t do that – they continue to deliver impressively tight and very spirited music, all pulled together by the production expertise of the Dickinson Brothers. As Luther writes in the title track “It don’t matter what dirt is on my boots / I’m in a Mississippi state of mind”. And so the music will remain so.
