NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS
HERNANDO

Guitarist-vocalist Luther Dickinson says of the North Mississippi Allstars’ new album Hernando. “Musically, it’s our most solid statement. It’s just real natural and organic and honest. The key phrase, while we were making it, was, ‘It’s just heavy.’”

            Heavy, indeed. The Allstars’ fifth studio album – the first release on the trio’s own label, Songs of the South (distributed by Sony/BMG’s independent arm RED Distribution) – is a primal return to the trio’s blues-rock roots.

            Luther – who is joined as ever by his bandmates: brother Cody on drums and longtime friend Chris Chew on bass – says the new album is distinctly different from its 2005 predecessor Electric Blue Watermelon in a variety of respects.

            “The last record lyrically was about looking back at the good old days of the North Mississippi Hill Country, and it was more straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll,” Luther says. “But lately I’ve been listening to early ZZ Top, early Black Sabbath, early AC/DC, some Led Zeppelin thrown in, Hendrix. That’s what I grew up listening to, before I headed into Black Flag. I wanted to put that root down and just go straight for it.”

            To help them develop this nuevo-retro sound, the Allstars turned to a familiar studio partner: Luther and Cody’s father, the legendary James Luther Dickinson. Singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and producer extraordinaire, Jim Dickinson – the 2007 recipient of the Americana Music Association’s lifetime achievement award as a producer-engineer – had previously helmed the band’s 51 Phantom (2001) and Electric Blue Watermelon, plus Tate County Hill Country Blues, a 2003 compilation of the Allstars’ informal early recordings.

            Jim says, “Hernando was an attempt to go back to the rock-blues roots that they started with. It’s probably closer to 51 Phantom than any of the other records, in that it’s mostly original material, but it’s blues-rock.”

            Hernando was recorded in the group’s titular North Mississippi hometown, at Jim Dickinson’s studio Zebra Ranch. The elder Dickinson -- who notes that Luther and the band were aiming for a new-millennium version of the sound engineer Eddie Kramer developed with the Jimi Hendrix Experience – says that the fresh style required new methods.

            “Luther let me select the songs,” Jim says. “I made him record demos, and I’d never made him demo before – I’d let him write in the studio. This time I said, ‘OK, if you want things different, I want things different.’ I made him demo up about 27 or 28 songs, which they’d never done. And this was better for Cody, because in the past he would sometimes come into the studio cold on some of the material – he’d never heard it.”

            Luther says, “For the first time, we went in as a band and demoed the songs. It really paid off, because when we got back in the studio, we had the arrangements down. We did some editing, chopped off some fat. And you know how Dad likes to do it – we got in there and slammed it out
live.”

            He adds, “It was exactly as I hoped. There’s something about doing it at home – there’s a unique characteristic about our studio. I don’t think going to a big studio and making a very modern-sounding record would benefit us.”

            Much of the Allstars’ earlier work was penned by Luther on the road. He says of Hernando, “We had a really nice time off last year, and we put the record together at home. I really experimented with collaborating on this record as I never have before.”

            He continues, “The first song on the album, ‘Shake,’ was the first song that I wrote. I had a ton of music written, and lyrical scraps. I invited my friend Jimbo Mathus [of the Knockdown Society, formerly of Squirrel Nut Zippers] down to the house, and I was playing him these musical ideas. He said, ‘Yeah! I’ve always wanted to a song about shaking what your mama gave you.’ So then we started to write. He jump-started me, and I was back in the zone.”

            Other collaborative numbers on the album include “Eaglebird,” written with Kid Rock’s bassist Aaron Julison, and “Take Your Time, Rodney,” co-authored by Rodney Evans, grandson of the late North Mississippi fife-and-drum bandleader Othar Turner.

            While Luther Dickinson continues to take most of the vocal chores on the new album, the other members get their spotlight numbers. Chris shines on the droll “I’d Love to Be a Hippie” (“I can’t wait to play that at some festival,” Luther says with a chuckle), while Cody takes the lead on the home-state salute “Lil’ Mizzip.”

            Hernando covers a lot of stylistic terrain – from the power-trio blues of Cream and the Hendrix Experience to the swamp blues of Slim Harpo and the old-time rock ‘n’ roll of Chuck Berry – but Luther notes that even though their original Hill Country sound is now just one of many currents running through the group’s music, they very much retain their identity as a Southern rock group.

            “You just can’t get away from it,” Luther says. “Lyrically, I love the old-fashioned poetry, the old-fashioned way of talking that I was lucky enough to be exposed to where I grew up. With the music, too – like John Lee Hooker said, ‘The boogie’s in him, and it’s got to come out.’”
Hernando comes in the midst of a busy time for the members of the Allstars. In December 2007, the Dickinsons and Chew regrouped with steel guitarist Robert Randolph and keyboardist John Medeski for a tour of their instrumental gospel jam group the Word. In 2008, Luther will be heard playing lead guitar on the new album by Southern rockers the Black Crowes. He will be touring as the band’s guitarist throughout the year. Also, a three-disc, two-CD/one-DVD North Mississippi Allstars retrospective, Do It Like We Used to Do, is planned for a 2008 release on Songs of the South.

            Luther says of the Allstars’ newly-established label, “We signed a deal in ’99, and got sold like a piece of meat over the years through a bunch of different companies. So by last year, we were finally free of all that. When you take a step back as a band and look at your history and realize that you’ve made all these records and don’t own ‘em, it’s a strange sensation. With the current climate of the industry, the idea of retaining ownership was really seductive.

For more information, please contact Ken Weinstein at Big Hassle Media:
or 212-619-1360