North Mississippi Allstars "Keys To The Kingdom" 2011
Keys to the Kingdom is easily the most personal album recorded by the North Mississippi Allstars to date. Luther and Cody Dickinson lost their father, the legendary producer and musician Jim Dickinson, in late 2009. Along with fellow bandmember Chris Chew, the trio gathered together in the Dickinson family's home Zebra Studios to record a tribute. The words "Produced for Jim Dickinson" adorn the back of the album. Despite the sobering circumstances, the band focused on their father's motto -- "I will not celebrate death" -- as the m.o for the sessions. They gathered together a slew of family friends including Alvin Youngblood Hart, Mavis Staples, Ry Cooder, Spooner Oldham, Gordie Johnson, and Jack Ashford, among others, to cut a set of original material inspired by old-school Dixie-fried roots rock, Delta blues, funk, and R&B. The album features a single cover, a one-chord blues version of Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile (With the Memphis Blues Again)," to fulfill a last request by their father.
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