The North Mississippi All Stars came out of nowhere, thundering out of the Magnolia State with a fiery, hopped-up blend of classic Mississippi blues and hard-rockin’ boogie that owed as much to Z.Z. Top as B.B. King. Their 2000 debut, Shake Hands With Shorty, shot blues classics like “Shake ‘Em On Down” and “Po’ Black Maddie” through with an injection of youthful, punk energy, combining raw slide guitar with head-banging drum patters and gospel hollering with drum loops. With that record, the All Stars, led by brothers Luther (guitar) and Cody Dickinson (drums), upped the ante on modern rock. It’s a power trio sprung from the deep, soulful soil of their musical home ground, and its first two records have both possessed a fresh mixture of blues intensity, gospel hope and rock-and-roll stomp.
Not that the sounds were unprecedented. Since 1991, Fat Possum Records, a tiny label based in Oxford, Miss., has unleashed the raw, primal intensity of the “dirty blues” that’s been played for decades in the Delta. For an audience used to the comparatively slick blues played by a mostly young, significantly white group of artists, the gritty, often trance-inducing music of Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and other artists was a whole new experience of the blues reality that had little to do with anything The Blues Brothers ever represented.
Add to that the All Stars’ contemporaries like Beck, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or G. Love and Special Sauce, who operate within the same genre-bending musical gumbo, and a musical mini-movement has arisen.
In spite of, or perhaps in some way because of the group’s youth, it is still deeply rooted in Mississippi’s blues tradition. Luther and Cody’s father, Jim Dickinson, is one of the legendary svengalis of Southern rhythm and blues, and he raised his children in the fertile musical landscape of the state’s Northern hill country. In a recent interview, Luther Dickinson discussed the importance of this environment openly.
According to Dickinson, “In my twenties, I was exposed to the blues of the hill country, which I’d never really heard that much of before . . . once I got to know those guys, it blew me away. Here was this great music that was right in my own backyard. I was doin’ my own thing, and then I got exposed to guys like R.L. Burnside and I realized that these guys could jam! I didn’t have to listen to their records–I could go down to Junior’s juke joint and see them.”
The All Stars’ sweet and respect-filled relationship with Othar Turner, a 96-year-old musician whose brand of fife-and-drum proto-blues represents a living piece of the roots of “roots music,” further demonstrates the group’s ties to its musical ancestors. “In the early 90s, we did a couple records with him,” Dickinson said of Turner, “and he told me a lot about life, like about moonshining, women, and music. I think he’s just a treasure. Someone of his generation has seen the world change so much.” Constantly supporting the artists of previous generations, The band has gone as far as to dedicate a section on its website, entitled “Tributes,” to biographies of Burnside, McDowell and Turner.
Although these blues influences are the primary force behind the All Stars’ music, one listen to either of the band’s albums (particularly its most recent, the good-but-not-great 51 Phantom) indicates a wider musical palette. Dickinson acknowledged that “psychedelic rock and gospel music were really important.” It should be no surprise that a cover of The Staple Singers’ classic “Freedom Highway” is one of 51 Phantom’s highlights. “Within our band,” Dickinson continued, “you know, there’s an appreciation for a lot of stuff. In fact, my brother Cody’s been listening to a very healthy dose of Slipknot lately, even though I can’t take that hard-line stuff.”
The All Stars’ evolution continues. 51 Phantom was released last fall, a record that Dickinson describes as “just another step” in the band’s development. “We’re still layin’ down the building blocks. Those first two [albums] are kind of stepbrothers in the evolution in our band, and the next one will be recorded in different places, as opposed to just doing it in Mississippi again.”
In addition, the All Stars collaborated with young steel guitar phenomenon Robert Randolph and jazz pianist John Medeski on The Word, an album of extended, jammed-out gospel cuts that served mainly as a showcase for Randolph’s astounding skills. (Randolph and his band are playing at the Memorial Union Friday Feb. 15. When I asked Luther Dickinson about Randolph, he explained, “Robert needs no hype. He’s just an extremely exciting talent springing up out of Jersey. The way he plays the pedal steel guitar is just amazing. He’s a great combination of feel and instinct, and it’s moving.”) The All Stars collaborated with former Squirrel Nut Zipper James Mathus on his major-label debut album, which contains similar sonic alchemy. The band also figured prominently in a recent New York City showcase of Mississippi blues that was filmed by Wim Wenders and Spike Lee for a future PBS documentary.
The success of the North Mississippi All Stars seems both predestined and completely unexpected. Its sound and exuberance appeals to both fans of straight-ahead, unpurified American blues and young rockers raised on Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘N’ Roses and Nirvana. The band’s eclecticism, while broad, does not evidence the range of influences that have informed its sound. For example, Luther Dickinson’s current favorite record is Prince’s The Rainbow Children. The band continues to explore new territory, and its spirit of experimentation seems to know no boundaries. The All Stars is, literally and figuratively, a child of American music, and the sounds that it creates are both timeless and revolutionary. Whether it will live up to its fullest potential or not is yet to be determined, but its earth-quaking, noise-making, ass-shaking, righteous racket is sure to keep us interested.
The North Mississippi All Stars will appear at Miramar in Milwaukee Feb. 8.
