Tag: Luther Dickinson

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Music Music Features

MEM_MODS

From the days of lockdown (Photo: Courtesy Peabody Records)

Creative thinking is often spurred on by a sudden change: There’s nothing like having the rug pulled out from under you to get you thinking on your feet. And, to hear Steve Selvidge tell it, that’s exactly what happened nearly three years ago when he, Luther Dickinson, and Paul Taylor began work on what’s now the freshly released album, MEM_MODS Vol. 1 (Peabody Records). Of course, that was a time when the whole world was caught off guard, not the least these three musicians who’ve thrived on live performance for decades.

“We were all reeling,” Selvidge recalls. But then a ray of hope appeared. “I got an email from Luther saying, ‘Paul and I have been messing around with some stuff, do you want to put some guitar on it?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t have anything else to do!’” It was within the first month of the pandemic’s lockdown, so Dickinson and Taylor had not been playing together in person; they’d been swapping tracks over the internet. And that in itself was not unusual for any of them.

“We all had some sort of digital audio workstation of some sort in our homes,” says Selvidge. “And I’d been doing a bunch of remote recording pre-pandemic, anyway. It’s not uncommon for me to do guitar overdubs here in my home studio.” That might even include the odd overdub on a Hold Steady track, he notes. “Mostly last little pickup bits right at the end,” he explains. “But for that last Bash & Pop record [by Tommy Stinson], we cut half of it live at Tommy’s place, and the other half was stuff written after the fact. So I did a lot of my guitars and all of my vocals here at my place on that album.”

Dickinson and Taylor had similar home studios, though Selvidge’s home in Memphis tended to be where it all came together. “After a while, it was easier for me to be the guy running everything in Pro Tools, with everybody sending me files,” Selvidge adds. “And so it kept growing.”

As it turned out, the three began to thrive on the collaboration in unexpected ways. After the first track, says Selvidge, “I was like, ‘We made this! I love it! And it’s something to keep myself occupied.’ So that turned into another track, and then we realized we had kind of a workflow. And we exploded with this creativity. Paul might start with drums, and either Luther or I would add a bass line, creating a song out of raw drums. And I started messing with old drum machines and wrote a tune to that. There were ideas flying everywhere! So much so that we had a brief storage crisis, the music piled up so quickly.”

The result is that rare bird in the indie music world, an instrumental album. While that might be somewhat familiar in the jam band world, MEM_MODS doesn’t really fit that tag. The tracks hit more like a lost ’70s soundtrack, evoking everything from Augustus Pablo-like dub to funk bangers to smoldering Isaac Hayes-like ballads. Tasty, ear-catching synth sounds abound. Indeed, the trio leaned into their multi-instrumental talents, with Dickinson not even contributing his first instrument, guitar. Instead, he played bass and various keyboards; Selvidge played guitar, bass, Rhodes piano, and drum machine; and Taylor contributed drums, percussion, omnichord, bass, fretless bass, washtub bass, synth pedals, and “soundscapes.”

Over these elements sit some of the finest horn parts to come out of Memphis in recent years, courtesy arranger and trumpeter Marc Franklin and saxophonist Art Edmaiston. Ranging from pitch-perfect pads to nimble, jazz influenced fills, the horns (and a flute cameo) pair with warm drums, bass, and guitar to ground the album in an earthy, Memphis vibe.

It makes sense, given how far back the three musicians go, all from famed musical families. “We’ve been making music together for 30 odd years,” says Selvidge. “So everything we’ve done together and apart came to the table when we did this. We know each other’s instincts, even as our lives have changed, getting married, having children. Losing our fathers. There’s a depth there with us. And that depth has gone into our playing.”

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Capricorn Catastrophe” by MEM_MODS

Music Video Monday has been psychedelicized!

Peabody Records was an independent label created by Sid Selvidge, an influential Memphis folk singer and member of the legendary supergroup Mud Boy and the Neutrons. It played a big part in keeping Memphis music alive when things were looking bleak in the 1970s.

Now, Sid’s son Steve Selvidge has resurrected the imprint and is releasing new music. You might know Steve as lead guitarist for The Hold Steady, or as one of the founding members of Memphis funksters Big Ass Truck, or from his extensive solo work. He and some of his oldest friends got together during the pandemic to record some funky new music under the name MEM_MODS. The two compatriots are Luther Dickinson, Selvidge’s fellow Son of Mudboy and the fantastically versatile guitarist of North Mississippi Allstars fame, and prolific multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor, most recently of New Memphis Colorways.

Since Dickinson has decamped to East Nashville, and Taylor is in rural Wisconsin, the collaboration which became MEM_MODS was done remotely in their home studios. The resulting music is a true Memphis melting pot of styles—funky, spacy, and gritty all at once. The full album won’t drop until February, but the first single “Capricorn Catastrophe” is out with an animated music video by Jake Vest, with contributions from Winston Eggleston. It’s a perfect little psychedelic snack for a Monday.

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: FreeWorld and Friends

Music Video Monday is bringing you all the colors of the rainbow.

Memphis jam band monarchs FreeWorld have been around long enough to know nearly everyone in the Bluff City music scene. The Beale Street stalwarts have spent their pandemic-enforced time off the stage in the studio, says bassist Richard Cushing. “We’ve been in Cotton Row Studio for the past several months working on this amazing project, and we’re all extremely proud of the way it turned out! The end result of all our dedicated work is a city-wide, multi-genre, multi-racial, multi-cultural music video meant to celebrate and exemplify Memphis’ (and the whole world’s, for that matter) diversity, and was created purely as a way to showcase the concept, the lyrics, the voices, the faces, and the overarching idea of diversity as an essential quality of life!”

When I say FreeWorld knows everyone, I mean it. “D-UP (Here’s to Diversity)” boasts a whopping 23 vocalists and 15-member band, including Al Kapone, Hope Clayburn, Marcella Simien, Luther Dickinson, and Blind Mississippi Morris.

Cushing says “D-UP” was originally a FreeWorld tune that the band decided to rework to reflect the lyric’s ideals and celebrate the struggling Memphis music scene. “The song, with lyrics written by David Skypeck and accompanying video produced by Justin Jaggers, came bursting forth with new life through the amazing production talents of Niko Lyras, along with the instrumental and vocal contributions of over three dozen established entertainers, talented newcomers, and legacy artists (see below), who all came together and donated their time and talents to create a work of art that celebrates and exemplifies the musical, cultural, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual unity and diversity inherent in our city and the world beyond.”

Music Video Monday: FreeWorld and Friends

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com. 

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Music Music Blog

New Memphis Colorways: A Man, A Band, A Plan

Paul Taylor, aka New Memphis Colorways

Memphians not hip to specific personnel in the local music scene may have seen the name New Memphis Colorways pop up in their feeds from time to time, and wondered just what that could be. A man? A band? A plan? [Panama? – ed.]

Actually, it’s all three. First of all, it’s the man otherwise known as Paul Taylor, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who grew up in the midst of many Memphis music luminaries, including his own father, legendary singer and guitarist Pat Taylor. “And I learned most of my songcraft from Richard Orange,” Taylor adds. “He was very much a second dad to me.”

Orange, of course, first came to Memphis as leader of the band Zuider Zee, whose recent release of archival material from 1972-74, Zeenith, was dubbed one of 2018’s best reissues by Rolling Stone magazine. That’s especially relevant because echoes of that era, albeit with some serious reconfiguring, are all over New Memphis Colorway’s new album, The Music Stands., to be celebrated at a release party on Friday, January 31 at The Green Room at Crosstown Concourse. It will simultaneously become available on all streaming services.

“The first two tracks are my weird modern take on Memphis power pop,” says Taylor, “and then it shifts to songwriter/acoustic mode for a couple songs, and then a couple of art rock instrumentals. Then the last song is a reflective ballad.”

While it’s easy to lay claim to the territory first mapped out by Big Star, Zuider Zee, or the Hot Dogs back in the day, the proof comes as soon as the proverbial needle drops. (Someone please put this out on vinyl!) “Impossible Goals” revs up like the Clash, then hits you with unexpected riffs and the kind of unaffected, straight-arrow singing you might have thought was extinct.

One astounding feat is the way Taylor’s voice has hints of Alex Chilton, even as his songwriting has more echoes of Chris Bell. And yet the music also could sit comfortably next to much later touchstones, like the Posies, in all its unexpected harmonic and rhythmic turns.

“I don’t want to be super-referential to the past,” notes Taylor. “I hold in my head, daily, the Sam Phillips quote, ‘If you’re not doing something different, you’re not doing anything at all.’ I do make study of older music, and I think it’s critical that you learn it note for note. I’m transcribing jazz solos or learning Steve Cropper or Teenie Hodges or Reggie Young, or the drumming of Gene Chrisman and Al Jackson Jr. These are my heroes. But I don’t deliberately set about making music that shows that off. At the end of the day, I try to throw that away and just let the songs come out.”

And come out they do, as some notable musicians, having heard advance tracks, have remarked on.

“Paul Taylor’s new record, under the nom de plume New Memphis Colorways, is like looking through a glass phosphorescently. Truly an artist of wizardry, sailing uncharted waters of sound, colour and light. An otherworldly adventure in melodic transcendence. Not to be missed.” – Richard Orange

Okay, that was from his “second dad” and mentor. But other songwriters have weighed in as well. Chuck Prophet, with whom Taylor has worked extensively in the past, said, “Paul has really come into his own here. Although the songs are deceptively simple, there’s a world inside each track. These little musical creations are killer. They will creep up on you. They’ll reach out and grab you. It’s all very soulful. And a little magical too. Kinda proggy. Kind of indie. And utterly impossible to describe. I dig it.”

And one of Memphis’ more literary songwriters, Cory Branan, had this to say: “Paul’s out of his damn mind. He conjures more original musical ideas in 12 bars than most musicians do with entire albums. The Music Stands. finds him, as always, accessing strangenesses and welding the unexpected with a singular vision.”

One striking thing about the record is that it doesn’t sound, like so many records, like the product of tinkering. It has the impact of a full-on rock band. Which would seem to answer the second query as to what exactly New Memphis Colorways is. But if you assumed it was a band from, say 1979, playing on these tracks, you’d be wrong. Nearly all the instruments were played by Taylor. New Memphis Colorways is a band in a man.

“I grew up listening to a lot of Todd Rundgren and a lot of Prince, and people like that who made records where they played everything. It’s what I’ve been doing since I was literally seven years old, when my dad was helping me four-track songs, so it seemed like a natural thing for me to do. The next record I make, I would hopefully play an acoustic guitar and hire a band around me, and do it live, like a lot of Memphis records that I love were. This one is more of a D.I.Y. affair, which is fun.”

Nevertheless, the album release show will have a full band. “I have musicians that are just incredible,” says Taylor. “Hopefully we’ll be playing more shows.”

Add that to a long list of releases, projects and entities with which Taylor is associated, much of which he releases on his own label, the Owl Jackson Jr. Record Company. “New Memphis Colorways is my brand,” Taylor clarifies. “And it’s all encompassing. Anybody who knows me knows I do a bunch of different things. The EP I released previously [Old Forest Loop] was drastically different from this, and the next one will probably be drastically different.” Still other eclectic expressions come in the form of an album of experimental instrumentals that exist only under the hashtag #nmcvignettes, and an even earlier online release, The Old Forest Trail.

The diversity of these varied projects is a delight in its own right, and ultimately shows that, at heart, New Memphis Colorways is a plan. “I’m a huge fan of skateboard art and graphic design in general,” explains Taylor. “If you were to release a skateboard, it might have different color combinations and variations on the same graphic: colorways. The whole concept of New Memphis Colorways is that it’s new combinations of ideas.” In this newest work, one finds the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach of the ’70s alive and well, and definitely kicking. It’s an approach that suits New Memphis Colorways just fine.

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Music Music Features

Jim Lauderdale Renews His Memphis Ties

CREDIT: Scott Simontacchi

When songwriter Jim Lauderdale takes the stage at the new listening room in the Old Dominick Distillery this week, it will renew a long but under-recognized relationship he’s had with Memphis.

While he’s played gigs here since the early 1990s, his ties to the city go deeper.

That becomes obvious as he lists some of the Memphians he’s worked with, including drummers Chad Cromwell and Greg Morrow and banjo player Richard Bailey. But sessions at the late Jim Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch Studio in Mississippi were what led him even deeper into the Memphis Sound. After cutting his Black Roses album, written in cahoots with former Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, and featuring Cody and Luther Dickinson, David Hood, and Spooner Oldham, he ran into Luther in Nashville.

“I was intending to do a country thing at the old RCA Studio A the next day,” he recalls, “and I thought it was an omen when I ran into Luther. I said ‘Hey, let’s check and see if Cody’s available.’ He was, and we got some other guys together, and were about halfway through that album when Luther said, ‘Man, you really ought to finish that soul stuff at Royal [Studios].’ So, I flew in, and Boo [Mitchell] let me use the old control room to write. I went in the next day, and there were Luther and Cody, Boo, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Charles and Leroy Hodges. After the first song went down, I finally relaxed — I was terrified of working with these great guys!”

Those sessions, begun in Nashville and finished in Memphis, became the double album, Soul Searching, with a disc named for each city. The “Memphis” slice of the record features songs that, despite Lauderdale’s signature alt-country baritone drawl, evoke nothing so much as classic 1960s horn-driven soul. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise to his fans. Lauderdale has always had eclectic influences. Early in his career, he dove deep into bluegrass, harmonizing with Ralph Stanley and recording his first (still unreleased) album with mandolinist Roland White. He’s also toured and co-written with Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. The common thread was a love of beautifully crafted songs.

A few years ago, Lauderdale found himself in London. “I wanted to go to a different place and just kinda catch the vibe over there. Like I do when I come to Memphis. I just kinda soak in something that’s in the air.” He cut a record with Lowe’s touring band and co-producer/engineer Neil Brockbank, but it sat on the shelf before being released last year as London Southern. The results, like Lauderdale’s songwriting itself, shied away from the obvious. Instead of nods to Liverpool or London, what emerged was, well, more soul music. “Those musicians over there grew up listening to the same thing,” notes Lauderdale. “They just live in a different place. And they’re really great players.”

His work in London, oddly enough, brought him around yet again to the Bluff City. “I got to co-write with Dan Penn. He’s a hero of mine, and we have a couple co-writes on London Southern. That’s another guy who I really wanna hook up with and write some more.”

It’s not that Lauderdale has moved away from his roots in classic country, bluegrass, or folk. It’s more that he sees all of it as a continuum of the American songwriting tradition. As an important figure in the Nashville-based Americana Music Association (AMA), he applauds the inclusion of soul in the “Americana” category, by both the AMA and the Grammys. And he applies this hybrid approach to his own work.

Referring to more (still-unfinished) sessions he did at Royal Studios last year, Lauderdale notes, “We ran out of time on this batch, but sometime I wanna come back and also add some pedal steel guitar to some things. Kinda do that country-soul blend.” And, he adds, he wants to work again with Memphis musicians. “There seems to be a camaraderie and not a competitive thing going there. The musicians that I’ve met are just real. They’re into the music and not overly concerned about the superficial stuff.”

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: John Nemeth

Music Video Monday double shot got you feelin’ freaky!

John Nemeth has been grinding at the blues for more than 15 years. His last album Memphis Grease won the Best Soul Blues award at the 2015 Blues Music Awards. His follow up Feelin’ Freaky is set for release this Friday, May 19. Nemeth and his band Blue Dreamers—drummer Danny Banks, bassist Matthew Wilson and guitarist Johnny Rhodes—were joined by Charles Hodges on the Hammond B3, Mark Franklin on Trumpet, and Art Edumondson on sax. Producer Luther Dickinson recorded the album at Royal Studios and Zebra Ranch.

Nameth teamed up with Memphis filmmaker Edward Valibus for a series of videos leading up to this week’s album release. The first, filmed at Tad Perison’s famous indoor trailer park, is a performance video for the album’s title track, “Feelin’ Freaky”.

Music Video Monday: John Nemeth

The second is an appropriately moody clip for “Rainy Day”.

Music Video Monday: John Nemeth (2)

Nameth and the guys will celebrate their album release this Friday at Loflin Yard before hitting the road for a long U.S. tour. You can find out more about the record on his website.

If you would like to see your video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

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Music Music Features

SXSW 2015: Prepare For Impact

While Memphis musicians are gearing up to head down to South By Southwest this week, local venues like the Hi-Tone are already experiencing the surge of shows that come along with the more than 2,300 bands traveling to the festival in Austin, Texas.

“I start getting emails in December from bands that are trying to come through Memphis on their way to South By Southwest,” said Hi-Tone owner Skinny McCabe.

“On our calendar for March, 29 of the 30 dates are booked, mostly by bands traveling to the festival.”

McCabe said that Memphis probably gets more South By Southwest traffic than other cities because of its location.

“Being off of I-40, Memphis is an attractive place for bands to stop and play music, and us having two rooms to do shows has really helped some of the smaller bands still have a good show.”

With so many bands coming through town, the Hi-Tone can’t host everything (McCabe said he’s had to turn down around 100 bands wanting to play the venue in March after filling his schedule), and local venues like Murphy’s and Bar DKDC in addition to house venues like Carcosa have also hosted bands making the annual trip down to Austin.

So if all of these great groups are coming through Memphis, why even bother going down to Austin? Two words: unofficial showcase. Sure you can purchase the $895 wristband when you get to Austin, but be prepared to stand in line for a very, very long time. That experience will get you ready for the rest of the official side of SXSW, a freak show complete with never-ending lines, not enough port-a-johns and enough drunk college students to rival an MTV Spring Break party.

Any show that has “official showcase” listed next to it means that without a wristband, you’re probably not getting in. “Unofficial showcase” means get there early, and it will probably be free. While I’m not sure which rebellious soul held the first ever unofficial showcase, it didn’t take long for Austin business owners to figure out that they could get in on some of the action that mostly takes place downtown. Every single place with electricity in Austin now hosts unofficial showcases, and you pretty much can’t do anything without hearing some form of music. Think that coffee shop is going to be a quiet place to start your day at South By Southwest? They’ve got bands booked ’til midnight. That barbecue food truck you’ve been meaning to check out? They’ve got 15 bands playing there too. This is what South By Southwest has become, a nearly 24-hour concert held all over Austin.

Goner Records has hosted an unofficial showcase for more than five years at Beerland, a venue in the heart of downtown Austin and directly in the chaos of South By Southwest. In addition to using the festival as a way to check out new bands for the annual Goner Festival, Goner Records publicist Madison Farmer said they also use their showcase to expose the label to new listeners.

“We like to see a band live before we invite them to play Goner Fest, and South By Southwest provides a great chance for us to do that,” Famer said.

“Because we have the Friday night slot, we end up drawing a lot of people into Beerland who may not have seen any of our bands before, and that’s exciting especially for the bands who are only playing one show.”

Farmer said that Goner Records plans to keep their annual showcase unofficial:

“We’ve been working with Beerland for as long as I’ve been at this label, mostly because they approach South By Southwest the way we do. They don’t plan on working with the official side of the festival and neither do we.”

Some of the Memphis artists playing South By Southwest this year:

Luther Dickinson at SXSW:

Thursday, March 19th at Threadgills, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, March 20th at Continental Club, 12:40 a.m.

Friday, March 20th at Auditorium Shores, 7 p.m.

The Memphis Dawls at SXSW:

Thursday, March 19th at the St. Vinny Freebirds stage, 2:15 p.m.

Thursday, March 19th at Lamberts, 11 p.m.

Amy LaVere at SXSW:

Tuesday, March 17th at Ginny’s Little Longhorn, 10 p.m.

Wednesday, March 18th at Goorin Brothers Hatshop, 8:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 19th at the Broken Spoke Twangfest, 1 p.m.

Thursday, March 19th at Threadgills, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, March, 20th at the Continental Club New West Showcase, midnight

Friday, March 20th at One 2 One’s Memphis Showcase, 11 p.m.

Saturday, March 21st at The Roost, 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Mark Edgar Stuart at SXSW:

Thursday, March, 19th at Lamberts, 7:25 p.m.

Friday, March 20th at St. Vincent DePaul, noon

Saturday, March 21st at St. Vincent DePaul, noon

Nots at SXSW:

Thursday, March 19th at the Yellow Jacket Social Club Brixton Party, 4 p.m.

Thursday, March 19th at the Casa de Reyna She Shreds Party, 5:10 p.m.

Friday, March 20th at the Beerland Goner Party, 1 a.m.

Saturday, March 21st at the Hotel Vegas Burgermania Party, 2:45 p.m.

Saturday, March 21st at the Third Man Records Rolling Record Store Party, 5:30 p.m.

Goner Records Friday night showcase at Beerland:

Friday, March 20th at Beerland, 7 p.m. $10.

8:30 p.m. – James Arthur’s Manhunt

9:15 p.m. – Spray Paint

10 p.m. – Aquarian Blood (only Austin show)

10:45 p.m. – Lake City Tigers

11:30 p.m. – Manateees

12:15 a.m. – Giorgio Murderer (only Austin show)

1 a.m. – NOTS

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Record Reviews: Three Memphis songwriters wrestle with mortality.

Rob Jungklas

Nothing to Fade

Self-release

There is a striking contrast between Rob Jungklas’ last two albums. Where 2013’s The Spirit & the Spine was a tortuous exploration of religious dread, his latest, Nothing To Fade, opens with the expansive acoustic universe of “Mary Sees Angels.” Anchored in tuned-down guitars and a five-string bass, a tone of redemption emerges from the depths. This tone continues in “Cop For You,” which has a hint of Cat Stevens amid the whooshy, compressed drums. Jungklas produced with Chad Cromwell and Jack Holder. Cromwell is a Nashville-based Memphian who has drummed for Neil Young and Mark Knopfler. Holder is known for his work with Black Oak Arkansas and Cobra. Jungklas has an affinity for religious language. But he never gets far from the edge. The black hounds gather for “Crawl the Moonlight Mile,” but the dark mood doesn’t dominate this record like it did his last one. The notions of faith and doubt permeate Jungklas’ work, but what sets him apart from “Contemporary Christian” music is his willingness to descend into Hell and the fact that he knows what good acoustic guitars sound like. It’s good to hear his voice emerge from the darkness.

Jesse Winchester

A Reasonable Amount of Trouble

Appleseed

Recordings

Jesse Winchester recorded A Reasonable Amount of Trouble shortly before his death in April. The album sounds much larger and more rambunctious than one might expect from a last effort. But producer and guitarist Mac McAnally lets Winchester’s voice hover in its own space among instruments that do more than support the song. Recorded at the Blue Rock Artist Ranch in Wimberley, Texas, this record is an acoustic marvel. McAnally has written for Jimmy Buffett, Alabama, and Kenny Chesney, among others. His acoustic palette is marvelous and does justice to Winchester’s melodies. Winchester’s voice is a grey line between himself and the air. The instruments don’t sit behind the voice as much as they mix with it. It’s refreshing and no small feat given Winchester’s leaf-on-the-wind vocal approach to delivering a lyric. Winchester had dramatic sense of melody and knew when to whisper and when to start a fire. The liner notes address Winchester’s aversion to writing from a dark place, even though the songs were written during his treatment for cancer. The album closes with “Just So Much.” “There is just so much that the Lord can do.” The last verse is an unflinching final testament to a writer, thinker, and musician.

John Kilzer

Hide Away

Archer Records

The Reverend John Kilzer’s Hide Away comes out on October 14th. It’s his first offering from Archer Records. Like Jungklas, Kilzer wrestled with the music industry in the 1980s, signing and releasing two albums on David Geffen’s DGC in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Kilzer was an All-American forward for the Memphis State Tigers in the late 1970s. That level of Memphianity gets you a backing band composed of Rick Steff, Greg Morrow, Sam Shoup, Steve Selvidge, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Luther Dickinson. Kilzer delivers contemplative songs, which one would expect from an ordained minister. The struggle between the divine calling and our earthly vessels is evident througout the record. But Kilzer took musical bona fides into the pulpit rather than taking the pulpit to the stage. That’s an important distinction and is aurally obvious from how much Kilzer’s voice gets wonderfully seduced by temptation.

“Lay Down” is a call to peace that transcends the stupid platitudes of hippies and casts the dialog for peace in biblical dogma. This record amounts to a nuanced and honest approach to a civic Christianity that sadly goes unnoticed in the culture wars. “Uranium won’t feed the hungry.”

“Until We’re All Free” marches a foot or two behind the Staple Singers, but is on the same path. The band Kilzer has assembled allows him to craft each song into its own sound. Throughout, the record benefits from the assembly of talented guitarists. Steff’s organ parts stand out in particular. “The White Rose and the Dove” is a sonic blend of “Stairway to Heaven” and “Blind Willie McTell” and therefore a bit of divine inspiration. On “Babylon,” Kilzer pulls out his judging finger, but he points it the right way. “You think God can hear your prayers/ You ignore their hungry stares.” The album might be a little long in places. I could live without “Love Is War.” But for the most part, Christianity as practiced in this country and this state in particular could use more leadership like Kilzer. He offers a soulful, compassionate alternative to the louder sort of God squadder. And he did so by making a great sounding record. Here’s to that.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sunday Morning Coming Down at GSL

Grace St. Lukes is hosting a musical lecture series that starts this Sunday, September 7th. Luther Dickison is the inaugural guest of the series that focuses on religion in Southern music. Luther’s topic is “Up over Yonder: The Sights and Sounds of Heaven.” Robert Gordon, author of Stax history Respect Yourself, talks about “My Baby on Saturday Night, Jesus on Sunday Morning” on Sunday, September 14th. Look out: Sunday, September 28th is a big deal: Al Gamble and  Paul Janeway from St. Paul and the Broken Bones discuss ““From Gospel to Soul.” St. Paul and the Broken Bones are on a major roll as second-generation purveryors of Southern soul. Gamble is the go-to Hammond organ wizard of his generation. The lectures run from 9:30 until 10:15 a.m.

Sunday Morning Coming Down at GSL

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Music Music Features

Rock and Roll Blues

CREDIT: Mike Kerr

Mike Kerr

Luther Dickinson

Luther Dickinson, along with his younger brother Cody, founded the most enduringly successful musical act to come from Memphis in his generation. Obviously, the North Mississippi Allstars had a head start, as the children of music producer Jim Dickinson. Luther and Cody are second-generation musicians, who got a privileged introduction to American music.

“The American roots vernacular of acoustic guitar and voice is my favorite art form,” Dickinson said by phone one night last week after putting his own child to bed. “But my second favorite is old language and poetry. The old lyrics in gospel songs or the way the old timers would talk. Othar [Turner] and R.L. Burnside and my dad, those people talked in poetry. I’m fascinated by it. I’m so thankful I’ve retained it.”

He’s definitely retained it. Luther has written a good set of songs that tell a story about Memphis and growing up here playing music. He has plenty to say about the real life difficulties and the still-wide-eyed enthusiasm of recording and touring. His latest record, Rock ‘n Roll Blues, exemplifies the Dickinson family’s institutional knowledge about how to make a record.

American Songwriter magazine debuted the album and was wise to note the dead guitar strings and ribbon microphones Dickinson used. Those techniques are only part of what went into this record.

Dickinson has an evolving body of work produced with drummers Shardé Thomas and Lightnin’ Malcolm and bassist Amy LaVere. Thomas is the granddaughter of Othar Turner, a legendary bandleader in the rural fife-and-drum tradition.

“Shardé and I… God, we love each other,” Dickinson said. “We’ve known each other since I was a teenager and she was a child. We both are under Othar’s spell. And my dad’s too. It’s like they live within our music when we get together. It’s like Cody and I, when we get together. It’s so strong. And when Shardé and I play together, it’s like a strong summoning.”

The band distinguished itself when Dickinson produced for the Wandering (with LaVere, Thomas, Valerie June, and Shannon McNally) and ended up recording LaVere’s next album.

“It’s nice when Amy, Shardé, and Malcolm have my back, and I have their backs,” Dickinson said. “That’s why she asked us to help make her record. We made her record right after World Boogie. The cool thing is that it’s the same people, but that record sounds totally different. It created its own aesthetic. It has a teenage, portable-radio, timeless fantasy about it. It’s about a runaway.”

Allstars’ bassist Lightnin’ Malcolm is playing the second “juke-joint” drum. He and Thomas both play without cymbals.

“We recorded back in December of ’12, right when he started playing with the Allstars,” Dickinson said. “We’d been writing songs and practicing together a lot. He loves playing drums. He’s played with T-Model Ford, Paul ‘Wine’ Jones, Robert Belfour. He’s a great blues drummer. He was really supportive of me during this time. We had the huge bass drum with the calfskin head at the studio. The caveman 808. We just set everything up and tried to get a groove going.”

Making a live record, as opposed to overdubbing tracks one at a time, is one of the lessons Dickinson has learned over years. Another is that computers make things easier and perhaps more efficient, but not necessarily better.

“We could all see each other. There’s enough bleed [between microphones] to where you’re committed. The bass and the drums are definitely intertwined,” Dickinson said. “Even the vocals are live. That’s what I was trying to do: commit. I get so sick of belaboring records; of cutting records backward: cutting band track and then piecing it together from there. The other thing was that I bought an eight-track machine. I couldn’t take it any more. I was so sick of working on computers. So I drove to Nashville and bought a refurbished 1-inch eight track.”

Another insight into record making is Dickinson’s insistence on the vocal performance as the production’s primary focus, a contrast to his work with the more instrumentally driven Allstars.

“The performance is about the vocalist,” Dickinson said. “I think pop music should be like that too. Vocal-based music, which I don’t really do. But if you make a singer commit, we all rise to that moment together. That’s how we made Amy’s record. We didn’t talk about it, but that’s what we did. It was very natural. You just get into the space and you’re delivering the song all together.”

The lyrics he renders on Rock ‘n Roll Blues depict an Odyssean struggle to get back home.

“The whole record is about people away from home. The character leaves home. All of my friends that I grew up with in Mississippi who didn’t move into the music business, have been in the military at some point. I always felt for them. I mean, I would be away from home, but they … I have friends who’ve been in Afghanistan for nine months and missed the birth of a baby; friends in Somalia, friends in Iraq in these insane situations that they’ve been in,” Dickinson said. “I always appreciate that: What I’m so fortunate enough to be able to do is just an embodiment of the American dream. I get out there and hustle and play music and live my life. Nobody tells me I can’t do it. I’m so thankful for that.”

The theme of alienation takes several guises: from soldiers at war to kids out tearing stuff up or buying records to a city-raised rock star cutting seven acres of grass in north Mississippi. There are lots of Memphis shout outs on Rock ‘n Roll Blues, including one to the Flyer.

“This whole record, my whole life, if it wasn’t for the local, all-ages scene, none of us would be here,” Dickinson said. “Mike Glenn’s all-ages shows at the Antenna Club, Babylon Café, Decadence Manor, the whole all-ages scene was so great for us. Lyrically, this record is set in Memphis. So much of it is based on our youth. I know what it’s like, rolling around Madison, going to Rare Records or Peaches. So much of that is in there. It just means the world to you when you’re a kid. It’s just like rock-and-roll. It’s amazing to think of my dad’s generation and even guys in the ’50s riding around in hot rods to the Toddle House in East Memphis. Seeing Bo Diddley at the damn VFW. But that same feeling. And I see it in my daughter. The reason why we put ‘Vandalize’ first is that she’s crazy about that song and makes us play it over and over. I would have never put it first. Even though it is the oldest song.”

Speaking of kids and thrilling rock-and-roll: Dickinson is enthused to see his childhood friend and fellow Son Mudboy, Steve Selvidge, find success as a musician.

“I’m so happy for him,” Dickinson said. “What a lifer. He deserves that. He stuck it out in the trenches for years. And the beautiful thing is [The Hold Steady] is such a good environment for him. He’s writing songs with them. He’s friends with them. He’s in the pictures. You know what I mean? He’s not a hired gun. It makes me so happy.”