Shake it, baby: North Mississippi Allstars ready to party with 'Hernando'

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

The North Mississippi Allstars may be looking further south for inspiration on their most recent album, “Hernando,” but don’t worry — it’s still Mississippi, and it still sounds like the sons of legendary producer Jim Dickinson.

After the melancholy mood of the band’s 2005 album, “Electric Blue Watermelon,” the brothers — Cody and Luther Dickinson, along with bass player Chris Chew — decided it was time to rock out on “Hernando.” As it happened, Luther found himself listening to a lot of blues-influenced rock — early ZZ Top, early Black Sabbath and other records that channeled the ghosts of those long-dead Delta blues men and added in a heavy dose of rock guitar.

“It was just what I was listening to, and there’s just so much blues in that music, at least that I hear,” Luther Dickinson told The Daily Times this week. “‘Watermelon’ was just such a heartbreaking record — it was kind of our reaction, lyrically at the heart of the record, to all of these people passing on — and it was all therapeutic. But after that, Cody and I were just like, ‘Let’s make a party record — something you can throw on and have a good time to.’”

It’s not a huge stretch from “Electric Blue Watermelon” to “Hernando,” but the latter adds a fire and a blistering grit that the former eschewed for a more mellow approach. “Electric Blue Watermelon” is all about sunsets and front porches and wallowing in memories both good and melancholy; “Hernando” is the sound of a loud, snarling band of rock ‘n’ roll rednecks pouring through a lousy PA in some roadside juke joint back in the Mississippi pines on a drunken Saturday night.

“We demoed up about 20 songs — some love songs, some poppy songs — just to experiment,” Dickinson said. “Before we went in to make the record proper, our dad helped us pick the songs, and he chose the rockers, which kept us on the original path we were shooting for.”

Jim Dickinson, as the producer of “Hernando,” is the compass by which the North Mississippi Allstars steer their ship. He’s not the captain or the admiral or even the first mate; the boys are their own musicians and people. But their dad, since his days as a legendary Memphis producer, working on classic albums by such artists as Ry Cooder, Big Star, Jim Keltner and The Replacements, raised his boys in a musical environment. They could play an instrument before they could ride a bike, and hill-country blues, gospel and roots music are as much a part of their background as church music is to a Southern baptist preacher who’s never lived more than a mile from the church in which he grew up.

By their teenage years, the brothers were playing in Memphis punk bands, but gaining an even better appreciation for the music of their birthplace. Through that rediscovery, they formed the Allstars, joined by Chew on bass. The band began a run of twice-a-week, four-hour long shows on Beale Street in Memphis, and from there, the group exploded, releasing “Shake Hands With Shorty” and 2001’s follow-up, “51 Phantom.” “Polaris” followed in 2003 and a live set debuted in 2004 (recorded at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn.). The band’s most recent album, “Electric Blue Watermelon,” came out last year.

The creative process for “Hernando,” Dickinson said, was perhaps one of the most collaborative between the three guys than ever before. Chew contributed many of the riffs, and the rough sketches for the record were recorded during various soundchecks, on laptop computers and cell phones.

“Collaborative riff-rock is real natural for us, and we all enjoy playing what we create together,” he said. “It’s way easier playing ‘Keep the Devil Down’ than playing something I put together and had to teach to the rest of the band.”

Working with their father, he added, only helped the guys stick to their original vision. Jim Dickinson’s abilities as a producer gives him an uncanny sixth sense about what the songs need; throw in his sons on the other side of the studio glass, and the choices are even more innate for the long-time professional.

“He knew we were in a different place and where we were coming from,” Luther Dickinson said. “He knew what the heart of ‘Watermelon’ was about, and in the long run, he helped protect the original idea of what ‘Hernando’ was going to be by choosing the rock songs. He kept it on track.

“It’s funny — someone told me the other day that, ‘You guys are one of the only bands I enjoy hearing on a bad PA.’ It really helps that the blues sounds good no matter how you’re listening to it. This record was just a blast to do, and even more fun to play live. It’s really fun to jump into something that gets the crowd dancing.”