NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS
Lightnin' Malcolm opens

The North Mississippi Allstars were founded in 1996; a product of a special time for modern Mississippi country blues. RL Burnside, Jr. Kimbrough, Otha Turner and their musical families were at their peak; making classic records and touring the world. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson soaked up the music of their father, Jim Dickinson, and absorbed the North Mississippi Blues legacy while playing and shaking it down at the juke joints with their blues ancestors. Luther (guitar and vocals) and Cody (drums and vocals) joined up with bassist Chris Chew to form the core of their own band, The North Mississippi Allstars. Through the filter of generations of Mississippi Blues men, the Allstars pioneered their own blues-infused rock and roll.
Luther and Cody Dickinson lost their father, Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson, only months before Luther became one. Jim had always told them, You need to be playing music together. You are better together than you will ever be apart. Coincidentally, the Dickinson brothers were not together when Jim passed. At that moment, they were both off on their own, Luther with The Black Crowes and Cody with the Hill Country Revue. So in the spring of 2010, the North Mississippi Allstars reformed and went into the Zebra Ranch, the familys recording studio where they had spent countless hours together with their dad, to create a record that could help them cope with the loss, and, at the same time, rejoice in his honor. The first line of Jims self-written eulogy was, I refuse to celebrate death. Luther, Cody and Chris Chew took heed and aimed to celebrate life instead; and the songs for the new record, Keys To The Kingdom (Songs of the South), came pouring out of their souls. As is our familys tradition, we gathered in our homemade studio and recorded, Luther says. We carried on as weve been taught and dealt the only way we know, by making musicKeys To The Kingdom is definitely our finest collaboration.
The North Mississippi Allstars have put a fresh face on blues-based rock for those too young to remember the works of Johnny Winter, Cream, Canned Heat, and the Allman Brothers. Their mix of fuzz-tone rock pyrotechnics--reminiscent of ZZ Top--with jazzy bass, Southern gospel, and juke-joint blues, has enabled the band to expand their mid-South cult following into an international fan-base. The most dynamic aspect of their sound is the eclectic guitar work of Luther Dickinson, who often incorporates Duane Allman-style country-rock licks with punkish vamps and percussive, bluesy improvisation into his solos. Younger brother Cody Dickinson drums with hard rock force and flair but is highly adaptable to the group's many shifts in mood and tempo. Holding it all together are the jazz-tinged bass lines of Chris Chew, whose backup vocals provide a soulful counterpoint to Luther's hissing hard-rock phrases. Although the roots-minded trio draws heavily from such old-time blues artists as Mississippi Fred McDowell, R.L. Burnside, and Junior Kimbrough, the Allstars bristle when others label them a blues act. "We don't claim to be a blues band at all," Luther Dickinson told Edward Angel Sotelo of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "We're a rock 'n' roll band."