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North Mississippi Allstars

A forgotten roll of film inspired a musical accompaniment, the North Mississippi Allstars’ new record Up and Rolling. Shot before the turn of the century, the photographs resonate with the music of four families from the Mississippi hills. The album captures the communal spirit upon which the band was founded.

In 1996, a photographer from Texas, Wyatt McSpadden, traveled to North Mississippi looking to photograph local musicians. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson had grown up just south of Memphis and cut their teeth playing experimental rock & roll together, as well as the roots repertoire pioneered by their father, Jim Dickinson, a legendary producer (Big Star, the Replacements) and session player (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan). Their feet were firmly planted in the North Mississippi mud and music scene, and they were excited to show Wyatt around their community, to introduce him to the musical families of Otha Turner, RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.

Their first stop was Otha Turner’s farm. Then in his late eighties, he was the last living fife and drum musician in the hills—“and a friend to all,” Luther exclaims. “He looked sharp that day, still in his Sunday best and ready for a good time.” They all sat together on Otha’s fabled front porch, which was something like a classroom for the elder Dickinson brother. The two would sit for hours, the kid playing guitar while the old man made up lyrics on the spot. That’s how “Call That Gone” came into the world, decades before the Allstars recorded it for Up and Rolling.

After Otha treated Wyatt to an impromptu concert featuring his family band of drummers, the fife player sent them down to Junior Kimbrough’s nightclub. They crossed the county line to see Junior and his Soul Blues Boys perform electrified, multigenerational cotton patch blues in their own unique style. Later that evening RL Burnside showed up, took the bandstand with beer in hand, and proceeded to tear the house down. “Wyatt was so smooth nobody felt he was taking photos,” Luther recalls. “No one was self-conscious or posing. Wyatt had a cloak of invisibility.”

Once the Peavey amps were turned off and the jukebox unplugged, Cody and Luther parted ways with the Texan. Wyatt shared a handful of the images with Otha and the Dickinsons but no one saw the remaining photographs for decades. Wyatt’s images were forgotten. The Dickinsons had other matters demanding their attention—namely, a new band they envisioned as a loose collective of local musicians who would play the community’s repertoire.

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Live Review

The North Mississippi Allstars: The Essex Experience Green - 2023 Old Stage Summer Series

Read "The North Mississippi Allstars:  The Essex Experience Green - 2023 Old Stage Summer Series" reviewed by Doug Collette


The North Mississippi Allstars The Essex Experience Green 2023 Old Stage Summer Series Essex, Vermont July 29, 2023 After an afternoon of steady rain, comparable to but hardly so severe as those that caused flooding in the state of Vermont earlier in the summer, the clouds parted and the sun shone over the Green Mountains the evening of July 29th, allowing local blues savant and radio personality Mr. Charlie Frazier to introduce the North ...

369
Album Review

North Mississippi Allstars: The North Mississippi Allstars: Keys to the Kingdom

Read "The North Mississippi Allstars: Keys to the Kingdom" reviewed by Doug Collette


Following a hiatus of sorts for The North Mississippi Allstars, during which time guitarist Luther Dickinson worked with The Black Crowes while drummer sibling Cody fronted his own band, Hill Country Revue, the group's reformation has fueled a fire within the music of Keys to the Kingdom. The music begins to flow in a rush of emotion, right from the beginning of “This A'Way," and “Jumpercable Blues," though a bit tongue-in-cheek, is a comparable torrent of feeling. “Ain't ...

299
Live Review

North Mississippi Allstars at Highline Ballroom

Read "North Mississippi Allstars at Highline Ballroom" reviewed by David Miller


North Mississippi AllstarsHighline BallroomNew York, NYFebruary 26, 2010As expected, in the best way possible. When my friend (a North Mississippi Allstars virgin) asked what we were in for as the Allstars took the Highline Ballroom stage on a snowy Friday evening in New York, I told her some specifics: drummer Cody Dickinson also plays the washboard; bassist Chris Chew is the most demonstrative of the bunch and brings some funky mojo to each show; and ...

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Album Review

The North Mississippi Allstars: Do It Like We Used to Do

Read "Do It Like We Used to Do" reviewed by Doug Collette


The North Mississippi Allstars' youth belies its history, as documented on Do It Like We Used to Do. Over the course of two CDs and a DVD featuring archival material, interviews and concert footage, the band displays reverence for the music it plays, without ever taking itself too seriously.

Reasonably priced in skeletal packaging with colorful and information-laden graphics simulating a scrapbook, this three-disc set ostensibly covers the first twelve years of NMA history, from 1996 to 2008. Yet this ...

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Live Review

North Mississippi Allstars in Denver

Read "North Mississippi Allstars in Denver" reviewed by Geoff Anderson


North Mississippi Allstars Bluebird Theater Denver, Colorado January 31, 2009

It's just as well that the Bluebird Theater doesn't have any seats. When the North Mississippi Allstars play, no one would be sitting anyway. Their shows are basically a non-stop two-hour boogie fest. They play “country blues" that has a repetitive, sometimes funky, bass line with chords that don't always get into the classic I-IV-V progression. Some of the extended jams focused on ...

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Performance / Tour

North Mississippi Allstars: Spring Tour Dates

North Mississippi Allstars: Spring Tour Dates

Source: JamBase

TOUR INCLUDES DATE AT GEORGIA THEATER IN ATHENS AND WANEE FESTIVAL IN LIVE OAK, FL North Mississippi Allstars are pleased to announce their upcoming spring tour, which will include stops in Nashville, St. Louis, Little Rock and a return to the recently rebuilt Georgia Theater in Athens. Tickets for most shows are on sale now. Get ticketing details at www.nmallstars.com. NMA is also planning to return to the Wanee Music Festival in Live Oak, FL. Other bands on this year's ...

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Performance / Tour

North Mississippi Allstars Add December Dates

North Mississippi Allstars Add December Dates

Source: JamBase

DATES ADDED IN RUN-UP TO NYE AT BOND-FIRE FEST North Mississippi Allstars are happy to announce 3 Holiday shows in December, including performances at Hal & Mal's in Jackson, MS and Soul Kitchen in Mobile, AL. Later in the month, the band will stop at the Variety in Atlanta on their way down to the Bond-Fire Arts & Music Festival on New Years Eve. Tickets for these shows go on sale this Friday. Get more info at nmallstars.com. Tour Dates ...

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Performance / Tour

North Mississippi Allstars: New Shows in Fall

North Mississippi Allstars: New Shows in Fall

Source: JamBase

LATE SUMMER AND FALL APPEARANCES North Mississippi Allstars have announced they will be performing an Austin City Limits After Show at Antone's on September 15th. Tickets for this show go on sale Thursday at 10am. The Allstars are scheduled to perform at Austin City Limits the following day. Get more details here. NMA has also announced they will be playing 2-days at the Rancho del Gumbo Festival in Colorado Sept 23-24. Other bands expected at the festival include Ivan Neville's ...

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Performance / Tour

North Mississippi Allstars: New Dates Announced

North Mississippi Allstars: New Dates Announced

Source: JamBase

NEW DATES ANNOUNCED; KEYS TO THE KINGDOM OUT FEB. 1, 2011 The North Mississippi Allstars are happy to announce they will be performing at the Dominion Theater in New York on January 27. Tickets for the show will go on sale this Friday at noon. The band is also pleased to announce they will be performing at the annual SXSW festival in Austin, TX this March. Get more details on both shows at www.nmallstars.com. In addition to the new shows, ...

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Recording

North Mississippi Allstars: New Album in February

North Mississippi Allstars: New Album in February

Source: JamBase

FIRST NEW STUDIO WORK IN TWO YEARS North Mississippi Allstars have announced the release of its first studio album in two years. Keys to the Kingdom arrives February 1, 2011. Last year, 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 ...

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Performance / Tour

North Mississippi Allstars: Thanksgiving Weekend Shows

North Mississippi Allstars: Thanksgiving Weekend Shows

Source: JamBase


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Performance / Tour

North Mississippi Allstars | 03.12 | St. Louis

North Mississippi Allstars | 03.12 | St. Louis

Source: JamBase

By: Neil Salsich

North Mississippi Allstars :: 03.12.10 :: The Pageant :: St. Louis, MO

Hill Country Revue :: 01.23.09 :: by Josh Miller “Welcome to the North Mississippi Hill Country Revue!" Those words, shouted by Hill Country Revue's Daniel Coburn as he shook his mic stand triumphantly before the crowd, marked the end of the evening's most amazing display of collective musicianship and the beginning of a fervently appreciative crowd's ravenous applause. It was well deserved considering what ...

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Performance / Tour

North Mississippi Allstars Tour

North Mississippi Allstars Tour

Source: JamBase

North Mississippi Allstars Announce Tour

North Mississippi Allstars are thrilled to announce their first extended tour since early 2009. The upcoming tour will take the band across the country and include stops in San Francisco, Nashville, Philadelphia and New York. Stay tuned, as more dates will be added soon. Presale tickets for many of these newly announced shows are available now.

12/18/09 Fri Hal & Mal's Jackson, MS 12/19/09 Sat Minglewood Hall Memphis, TN 01/03/10 Sun ...

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Obituary

Jim Dickinson, Memphis Producer, Musician and Father of 2 North Mississippi Allstars, Dies

Jim Dickinson, Memphis Producer, Musician and Father of 2 North Mississippi Allstars, Dies

Source: Michael Ricci

Jim Dickinson, a musician and producer who helped shape the Memphis sound in a career that spanned more than four decades, died Saturday. He was 67.

His wife, Mary Lindsay Dickinson, said he died in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital after three months of heart and intestinal bleeding problems. The couple lived in Hernando, Miss., but Dickinson recently had bypass surgery and was undergoing rehabilitation at Methodist University Hospital, his wife said.

Jim Dickinson, perhaps best known as the father of ...

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