Up and Rolling

The North Mississippi Allstars bring it all back home on Up and Rolling, the bands debut offering for New West. Cody and Luther Dickinson (scions of the late producer Jim Dickinson) may have taken their brand of roots rock, dirty-blues crunch, soul, and funk across the globe many times, but they’ve never forgotten their roots in Mississippis Hill Country mud. In 1996, Texas photographer Wyatt McSpadden visited the Dickinsons and took pictures of local hill country musicians Otha Turner, Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, and others, along with their musical families. All the musicians and their kin played together at Kimbroughs juke joint. Most if not all of the offspring are or have been NMA collaborators through the decades. (Singer and fife player Sharde Thomas, Othas granddaughter, continues to lead grandads Rising Star Fife & Drum Ensemble.) The photos went undiscovered for some 20 years, and they are what inspired this soundtrack. The band enlisted friends for a wonderfully unruly celebration of blood, land, and musical ties. Jason Isbell sings lead and plays guitar on a wooly read of Little Walter Jacobs Mean Old World with Duane Betts adding his own axe. Mavis Staples fronts NMA on a bubbling, funky take of her own familys What You Gonna Do (written by Pops Staples) with Rev. Charles Hodges on Hammond B-3, and a vocal chorus courtesy of Tierinii and Tikyra Jackson. Cedric Burnside sings and plays on his uncle R.L.s crunchy blues choogler Out on the Road and a countrified version of Thomas A. Dorseys gospel standard Take My Hand Precious Lord. NMA -- Luther and Cody on guitar and drums, respectively, Thomas on vocals and fife, Carl Dufrene on bass, and Sharisse Norman on vocals -- are a well-seasoned outfit; the quintet and most of their guests have been playing together in various capacities for most of their lives. Call That Gone is a filthy, squalling, bottleneck-guitar blues driven by rolling tom-toms with souled-out vocals from Luther and Thomas, her fife trading licks with his guitar. The title track is a summery country-blues framed by Codys Wurlitzer and sung in three-part harmony. Peaches is lusty, groove-and-grind blues funk with Thomas and Luther exchanging sung lines with real heat. Lonesome in My Home is low-down trance-dance blues penned by Kimbrough. NMAs read is led by Garry Burnsides roiling bassline with killer guitar by Luther that will make you shiver. So will the punchy, funky Bump That Mother, with Roosevelt Colliers wily steel guitar and Codys breaking snare march. Living Free is good-time, back porch soul with snaky slide guitar, Wurlitzer organ, and sweeping vocals by Norman and Thomas. Othas Bye Bye Baby, with long-ago-demoed vocals by the man himself, is paired with Luthers guitar, which adds swamp mud and murk to bring the album full circle. Up and Rolling clears away decades of cobwebs, dust, and wisteria vines from the doorway to the past: Its a family reunion offering that looks to the Hill Countrys history and mystery for both its inspiration from the past and guidance to its present. ~ Thom Jurek

ディッキンソン兄弟によるサザン・ロック/ブルースプロジェクト、ノース・ミシシッピ・オールスターズ2年ぶりの新作は良心的アメリカーナレーベル、ニューウェストレコードから。それもあってかアメリカーナ色を濃くした今作ではヴィンス・ステイプルズやジェイソン・イスベルなど幅広いゲストを迎えた分、ヴァラエティに富んでレイドバックしつつも円熟したサウンドを聴かせる。もちろん、ブルース・スピリットは微塵も失っておらず彼らのルーツとして因縁浅からぬRLバーンサイド、その息子ギャリーと孫のセドリックも迎え、その芯は一層強固に仕上がっている。ブルース探究の旅はまだまだ続く。
intoxicate (C)片切真吾