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Honoring High*Ping*Drifter wherever he is...
North Mississippi All-Stars - Recher Theater
Towson MD.
May, 18 2008
Excellent AUD > FLAC > HQ MP3@VBR
Disc 1 (72:46)
101 Shake (What Yo’ Mama Gave You) >
102 Eaglebird >
103 Blow Out
104 Goin' Down South
105 Keep The Devil Down
106 Mean Ol' Wind Died Down
107 I'd Love To Be A Hippy
108 Shake 'Em On Down
109 No Mo
110 Po Black Maddie >
111 Skinny Woman
112 Drums
113 Sugartown
Disc 2 (62:28)
201 ML (Goin' Home)
202 In My Time of Dying *
203 Poor Boy *
204 Sweet Soul Music *
205 Dixie Fried*
206 Stray Cat Blues *
207 Meet Me In The City *
208 All Night Long > Lovelight > All Night Long >
209 Everybody Needs Somebody To Love >
210 Snake Drive > Mississippi Party > Snake Drive *
211 Pre-Encore Crowd
212 Psychedelic Sex Machine
213 Shimmy She Wobble > Station Blues > Preachin' Blues
* with Alvin "Youngblood" Hart
Total Time: 135min 14sec
Luther and Cody Dickinson, sons of Memphis musician/producer Jim Dickinson, grew up in the hill country of NW Mississippi. Neighbors of blues legends R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Otha Turner, they learned the idiosyncratic Mississippi Hill Country Blues in countless moonshine-fueled juke-joints where the all-night jam sessions literally never stop. They formed the North Mississippi Allstars with bassist Chris Chew in 1996, and since then have racked up a lot of road miles spreading the good news that
“World Boogie Is Coming!”
The Allstars pump out a rowdy dialect of southern blues-rock, heavily influenced by the gospel, country, rockabilly, punk, funk and jam genres. Music is their lives, and as if the NMAS wasn’t enough, they also have several side-project bands, including
Hill Country Revue,
The Word, and the
South Memphis String Band. Luther is also co-lead guitarist for the
Black Crowes. With so many irons in the fire, you really have to wonder if these boys ever manage to sleep. One gets the feeling that if they ever stopped playing for more than a day or two, they’d just burst or go maddog crazy. To borrow a quote from the late John Lee Hooker,
“It’s in them, and it’s got to come out!”
Without a doubt, this is one of the best AUD recordings I've ever heard ... of course, you would expect that at a 700-seat venue, but I digress. The sound is so good you'd almost swear it was SBD, but you can hear band members talking onstage away from the mikes, and one crazed member of the audience insisting repeatedly
"I am the Devil!"
Luther Dickinson does a masterful job of channeling the dank spirit of Jimi Hendrix thru the funkadelic filter of R.L. Burnside and Mississippi Fred McDowell, and drummer Cody Dickinson & bassist Chris Chew lay down a killer backbeat of deep-dish bass and metronymic drum swats, driving this badass bus further and harder than it's ever gone before. Memphis bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart comes onstage to deliver the sermon during "In My Time of Dying," and I honestly don't think I’ve ever heard a better performance of this song.
Conspicuously missing from this recording are “Rooster’s Blues” and “Soldier of the Cross,” both from their “Hernando” CD, but overall an energetic and inspired performance with a very nice cross section of originals and turbocharged covers showcasing their entire career.
This is my favorite band. I really enjoy their jam style, the way they shift gears and slide seamlessly from one song into the next without ever breaking their stone-cool groove. It shows a lot of skill and maturity as musicians, and as a band. If you’ve never experienced the Southern-Fried Full-Tilt-Boogie of the North Mississippi Allstars, you really are missing something special!
If you dig NMAS (and their side-projects),
PLEASE support them by going to their live shows, and by buying their CD's, DVD's and other materials directly from their online store:
NMAS Official Website
http://www.nmallstars.com
NMAS Official Online Store
http://northmississippiallstars.shop.musictoday.com/Default.aspx
.High*Ping*Drifter.
"When in doubt, I whip it out!"