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BUY THE CD
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The North Mississippi Allstars have received critical acclaim with a Grammy nomination for their first release, Shake Hands With Shorty. Further album releases also garnered them more Grammy nominations in the contemporary blues category. I personally liked the two fun songs they recorded for the 2006 animated movie, Barnyard.
The North Mississippi Allstars, as the name of their band tells us, hail from Mississippi—Hernando, to be exact. The band is comprised of Luther Dickinson on guitar and vocals, his brother Cody on drums, and Chris Chew on bass.
You may also remember them from their brief appearance as the house band for the short-lived Last Call with Carson Daly. Others will recognize Luther’s name as a member of the Black Crowes since 2007.
However, their current release, Keys to the Kingdom, may still leave them short of winning a Grammy in the contemporary blues category. There’s no doubt that this record is a tribute to Luther and Cody’s dad, the late producer and studio musician Jim Dickinson. Many of the songs speak of one’s passing and the intention to look at that in a celebratory way, not in a mournful way.
After listening to the CD several times, the letdown for me came with the sound mix and the lack of energy on too many tracks. This band has talent, but the songs that I liked least were the ones where the sound mix buried the vocals with the instrumentation. The songs I liked most were the ones where the vocals were more out front—such as “The Meeting,” which features Mavis Staples on vocals, and my favorite track, “How I Wish My Train Would Come.” Their interpretation of Bob Dylan’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” is quite interesting, and the vocals and pacing of the song remind me of Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.” The CD also concludes nicely, with “Jellyrollin’ All Over Heaven,” but, with a better overall mix, the CD would have been more enjoyable.
I respect the brothers for undertaking this project with heavy hearts, and my guess is that it was a labor of love for them to complete. However, if you’re looking for a CD to play over and over again, this is not the one. If you’re looking for a record that allows you to reflect on mortality and the afterlife with an underlying tone of spirituality, Keys to the Kingdom may be the one for you.
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