Down In Mississippi by Jim Dickinson

His life was short but his art is long. Jim Dickinson's legacy thrives in Mike McCarthy's splendid video shoot at the Zebra Ranch, home of Jim's dream with Jimmy Crosthwait packing a gun, the pretty girls prancing around the flaming cross. "Down in Mississippi."  Who's that lovin' on Jim? You'll have to see it to believe it.

R.I.P. dear husband, knowing your legacy lives on. - MLD

OXFORD AMERICAN MAGAZINE SCOOP!

Jim's legacy carries on with a huge event for his upcoming book, Search for Blind Lemon. 17,000 words from his memoir will be excerpted in the December issue of the Oxford American magazine. This is the music edition of the magazine featuring Tennessee music, including Jim's song off DIXIE FRIED, "The Judgement." The issue will be available on discerning newsstands December 5. It will come with a Tennessee music double-CD. If anyone subscribes before then, they'll receive the music issue (winter 2013) as their first of four issues in 2014. This is a great literary magazine- best I've ever read, thanks to the editor, Roger Hodge and a great staff. (Thanks, Max). You can subscribe here: https://secure2.palmcoastd.com/pub/oxam/subAll.asp

Slideshow - Capturing Zebra Ranch

Last month, Brantley Catlette recorded at the Zebra Ranch and took some photos to mark the day.  The photos ooze the ambiance of the studio and the essence of Jim Dickinson as a deconstructionist, who said, "I just like to watch sh*t rot!" 

Watch the slideshow or click on any photo to go to the album.

Photos courtesy of Brantley Catlette.

Here's a video of Jojo Hermann from Widespread Panic and Luther and Cody playing on the band "Missing Cats" tour.  Cody says that Jojo is frank about Jim teaching him to play keyboards when Jim was producing Jojo's original group, Beanland, at Sounds Unreal Studio in Memphis.   It is refreshing to hear how much Jojo sounds like Jim playing piano.  His joy in pounding out those rock 'n' roll eighth notes is the same as Jim's.  This video is reminiscent of the last verse of the song Luther wrote for his dad called "Ain't no Grave" on North Mississippi Allstar's  record, "Keys to the Kingdom:'
"If I had my way, he's be here today, sit down at the piano and play...."  

Jim wrote in his Last Words,  " As long as the music lingers, I'll be there." 

Listen and enjoy as Jim's legacy lives on....

40th Anniversary Concert at the Levitt Shell on July 13, 2013

Last Saturday, Memphians, musicians and music fans alike, came together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Memphis chapter of The Recording Academy.  Given the breadth and depth of music spanning those 40 years (and more), it would be quite a challenge to fit it all into a single evening.  Three hours after it began, it ended in a joyous finale of  the North Mississippi Allstars' "The Meeting"  with all the musicians on stage, much to the delight of both the musicians and crowd.

Larry Nager provided a first hand account of the evening which was published earlier this week on grammy.com (http://www.grammy.com/blogs/set-list-bonus-memphis-chapter-40th-anniversary-celebration-at-levitt-shell)  Many thanks to Larry and The Recording Academy.  There is a nice photo slideshow at the link.

The North Mississippi Allstars with Al Kapone

Photo: Greg Campbell/WireImage.com

What started as a celebration of history — the 40th anniversary of The Recording Academy Memphis Chapter — wound up making history, as the all-star concert on July 13 drew the largest-ever crowd at one of the city's most venerable venues, the Levitt Shell in Overton Park, where Elvis Presley played his first major concert on July 30, 1954, 59 years ago this month.

The King has left the building, but his spirit lived on in singer/bassist Amy LaVere's medley tribute to Sun Records, as she performed his first single, the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame-inducted "That's All Right." The performance opened a three-hour concert event that crossed genres, generations and state lines, showcasing the past, present and future of the region's diverse musical culture.

Despite a busy Saturday night that included a Robert Plant concert and a full slate of music on Beale Street, 6,500 Memphis music lovers gathered for a night that featured legendary artists such as Carla Thomas, who, in a rare appearance, sang her first hit, "Gee Whiz" (which was also the first Top 10 hit for the fledgling Stax/Satellite label). She was joined by siblings Vaneese and Marvell Thomas in one of the evening's most resonant performances. Along with the First Family of Memphis Soul, the show featured the Hodges brothers' Hi Rhythm Section — one of the greatest R&B sections ever — as the house band.

But this celebration wasn't just a master class in Memphis heritage. First-generation Stax star William Bell performed with the Bo-Keys, a group combining veteran soul singer Percy Wiggins with younger players. That mix of age spotlighted the timelessness of the region's music, as contemporary gospel powerhouse Sheri Jones-Moffett took everyone to church with her emotive "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and the up-and-coming Memphis Dawls remembered the famous Dusty In Memphis sessions with "Son Of A Preacher Man." Singer/songwriter Shannon McNally paid tribute to two Chapter greats who've passed: Memphis soul pioneer Bobby "Blue" Bland and Louisiana's eclectic singer/songwriter Bobby Charles.

The GRAMMY-winning Rebirth Brass Band took the packed crowd down to New Orleans for a funky Mardi Gras, while Lafayette's Roddie Romero and Eric Adcock, of Roddie Romero And The Hub City All-Stars, added zydeco and Cajun sounds, creating a Louisiana-Memphis fusion with Hi Rhythm.

Legendary disc jockey Henry Nelson served as announcer, and video from The Recording Academy's GRAMMY Living Histories archive ran during set changes, bringing deceased icons such as Sam Phillips, Rufus Thomas, Willie Mitchell, Jim Dickinson, and Isaac Hayes to the party.

And the man who started it all, Knox Phillips, oldest son of Sam Phillips, whose tireless lobbying resulted in Memphis landing its charter 40 years ago, received a commemorative note on the Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame just before the show began.

The "working musician" nature of the Memphis Chapter's leadership was strikingly displayed in a segment introduced by former Chapter President David Porter. "The Presidents" (all one-time Chapter Presidents) featured hitmaking former Chapter presidents backed by Hi Rhythm, from the roots-rock of Jimmy Davis to the sweet soul of Susan Marshall to the hip-hop of Al Kapone. The latter paid tribute to Memphis with "The Music," with surprising accompaniment by a string quartet and a horn section that included veteran trumpeter Ben Cauley, the sole survivor of the 1967 plane crash that claimed the lives of eight people, including Otis Redding. The band also included former Chapter President Scott Bomar (bass) and current Chapter President Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell (percussion).

The North Mississippi All Stars closed the night, getting the crowd dancing one more time to the trio's full-tilt blues-inspired rock. Closing in style, all of the musicians came back for a finale featuring the gospel-fueled "The Meeting."

Many of Memphis' most important musical families were present — the Phillips, Thomases, Mitchells, Hodges, and Dickinsons. But on this unseasonably cool July night, the bonds transcended blood and borders, as rock, blues, soul, funk, country, Cajun, hip-hop, classical, and gospel musicians of all ages and several states — the Memphis Chapter's extended musical family — came together for an unforgettable reunion.

(Larry Nager is a Nashville-based writer, musician and documentary filmmaker. A proud former Memphian, he is the author of Memphis Beat (St. Martin's Press) and the writer and co-producer of the film Bill Monroe: Father Of Bluegrass Music. He has been a member of the Memphis Chapter for more than 25 years.)

Set list:
Amy LaVere
"That's Alright"/Sun Records Medley
"Often Happens"
"Never Been Sadder"

The Hi Rhythm Section
"Soul Serenade"
Sheri Jones-Moffett
"Precious Lord, Take My Hand"
"Shine"

The Memphis Dawls
"Son Of A Preacher Man"
"Turtle Dove"

Roddie Romero and Eric Adcock with the Hi Rhythm Section, with Wendy Moten and Stefanie Bolton
"Riverside"
"Party Down"

"The Presidents" with the Hi Rhythm Section
Jimmy Davis, "I Take What I Want"
Al Kapone, "The Music"/"Whoop That Trick"
Susan Marshall, "What A Man"
Stefanie Bolton, "I Can't Stand The Rain"
Wendy Moten, "Save Me"
Susan Marshall, Stefanie Bolton and Wendy Moten, "Let's Stay Together"

Shannon McNally with the Hi Rhythm Section (Tribute to Bobby "Blue" Bland and Bobby Charles)
"Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City"
"String Of Hearts"

Rebirth Brass Band
"Feel Like Funkin' It Up"
"I Like It Like That"

Carla Thomas, Marvell Thomas and Vaneese Thomas with the Hi Rhythm Section
"The Breakdown, Part 1"
"The Memphis Train"
"Gee Whiz"/"If There Were No Music"

The Bo-Keys featuring Percy Wiggins
"Writing On The Wall"

William Bell with the Bo-Keys
"Easy Comin' Out (Hard Goin' In)"
"Tryin' To Love Two"
"I Forgot To Be Your Lover"

North Mississippi Allstars
"Rollin' & Tumblin'"
"Snake Drive"
"The Meeting"

Sid Selvidge Memorial Concert - Levitt Shell, June 25, 2013

The Legacy of Jim Dickinson and his musical collaborators continues to weave its way through the fabric of Memphis music as friends and family prepare to pay tribute to the recently departed Sid Selvidge on Tuesday, June 25, at 6:30 PM at the Levitt Shell at Overton Park, Memphis, TN.

Photo by Andrea Zucker/Courtesy the Levitt Shell
Sid Selvidge and his son, Steve, 

perform at the 2011 Jim Dickinson Folk Festival at the Levitt Shell.

http://www.gomemphis.com/news/2013/jun/20/tribute-concert-honors-late-singersongwriter/

As he prepares to say goodbye to yet another old friend and longtime musical collaborator, percussionist Jimmy Crosthwait can’t help but give a chuckle.

“It’s ironic,” says Crosthwait, who became the last surviving member of the iconic Memphis roots music super group Mud Boy & the Neutrons. The band also included the late guitarist Lee Bake, keyboardist Jim Dickinson and singer-guitarist Sid Selvidge, who passed away last month at age 69. “Anybody who knew us really wouldn’t have put their money on me (to be the last one standing). It’s the damn luck of the draw or whatever, but I am really glad to be able to play with the sons of all these guys.”

On Tuesday, Crosthwait will join the second-generation assemblage Sons of Mudboy — featuring Dickinson’s sons Cody and Luther from the North Mississippi Allstars, Baker’s son Ben, Selvidge’s son Steve, as well as their friend Paul Taylor — at the Levitt Shell as the headliners in a tribute to the elder Selvidge.

A honey-voiced folk singer, record producer, label owner, college professor, and, in the last years of his life, producer of the globally syndicated radio program “Beale Street Caravan,” Selvidge was lauded, following his death in early May after a long battle with cancer, as a gentle, yodeling giant of Memphis music in a league with some of the greats who inspired him growing up in Greenville, Miss.

“I really have been lucky in my life in that I’ve known and at times worked with some really wonderful and wonderfully talented people, and Sid is right at the top of that heap,” says Crosthwait, who intently followed Selvidge’s coffeehouse career in venues like the Bitter Lemon and Procape Gardens before Mud Boy formed in the early ’70s.

“These last years with ‘Beale Street Caravan,’ I think he’s done more as an ambassador of Memphis music to the world than anyone I can think of, and that includes Elvis. Sid did it pretty much on his own. He didn’t have a Colonel Parker and whoever.”

Steve Selvidge says such outpourings of feeling and regard for his father were overwhelming in the days following his death, which was part of the reason the family kept the funeral and memorial private.

“If it had been open, it just would have been too big, too many people,” he says. “But we wanted something where everybody could get together and pay tribute and just have a chance to commune, have a nice night with each other.”

For such an event, the Levitt Shell seemed a natural location. The elder Selvidge, who lived for a time in the nearby Evergreen neighborhood, played there countless times over the years, beginning with an appearance at Jim Dickinson’s legendary First Annual Memphis Folk Festival back in 1963.

His last appearances there came in 2011 when he played the memorial Jim Dickinson Folk Festival with Sons of Mudboy and later was one of the featured vocalists at the Shell’s 75th anniversary concert.
The memorial concert’s lineup, likewise, is full of significance to Selvidge’s life. The bluegrass combo Crawpatch, featuring Don McGregor, was signed to Selvidge’s Peabody Records label in the ’70s.
Also playing sets are bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart and singer-songwriter John Kilzer, both of whom Steve Selvidge says were among his father’s favorite artists.

And for the night the ranks of Sons of Mudboy will be swelled with special guests, including keyboardist Al Gamble and singers Reba Russell and Susan Marshall. Craig Finn and Tad Kubler, Steve Selvidge’s band mates in the acclaimed indie rock band The Hold Steady, will fly in from Brooklyn to sit in on a performance of the song “My Rival” off the notorious experimental Alex Chilton album Like Flies on Sherbert that the elder Selvidge produced.

Long after the last notes have dissipated at the Shell, however, Selvidge says his father’s tribute will continue in the legacy of music he left for others. Chief among those beneficiaries are the Sons of Mudboy who, after years of unofficial existence finally coalesced shortly before Selvidge’s death into a regular group with a weekly gig on Wednesday night at 1884 Lounge.

“There’s a component now of Sons of Mudboy of very consciously trying to keep the whole thing alive,” he says of their mission of playing the music their fathers loved. “Jim (Dickinson) and my dad were like, you need to keep this going. They would say somebody needs to be playing ‘Brownsville Blues.’ Somebody needs to be playing Furry Lewis. Somebody needs to be playing ‘Kassie Jones.’ They were champions of the music. And for us there’s a duty, but its deeply rooted in the fact that we just love the music so much.”
------------------------
Sid Selvidge Memorial Concert
6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park. Free. Visit levittshell.org.

SXSW Panel Discussion Podcast - I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone: Life and Times of Jim Dickinson

Back in March, a panel discussion was held at SXSW on the Life and Times of Jim Dickinson.  This week, SXSW has released a podcast of the discussion.

Jim Dickinson was a badass.

From his production work with legendary Memphis musicians to his impressive 1970 solo debut with Bob Dylan, Carl Perkins, and more, Jim's life was packed with incredible, often rowdy stories.

Have a listen to this warm, charming look back at the life and times of Jim Dickinson, as told by his surviving family and close friends. Hear from moderator/author Joe Nick Patoski, wife Mary Lindsay Dickinson, sons Luther and Cody Dickinson (North Mississippi All-Stars), and musicians/producers/collaborators Jim Lancaster, Jody Stephens, and madman Mojo Nixon, as they recant tales of this fascinating character and artist.



Direct link to the Soundcloud page for the podcast (if the widget isn't visible above):
https://soundcloud.com/officialsxsw/im-just-dead-im-not-gone-life

Thanks to SXSW for the podcast.
Original link:
http://sxsw.com/music/news/panel-podcast-im-just-dead-im-not-gone-life-and-times-jim-dickinson

Patty Griffin - NPR Interview and Live Performance - "American Kid"

Grammy Award-winner Patty Griffin released a new album, "American Kid," on May 7, 2013.  Griffin says much of the album "was written to honor my father."

Last week, Griffin visited WXPN studios for a live interview and performances of some tracks from the new album.  She talks about traveling to North Mississippi to record the new album at the Dickinson family studio, Zebra Ranch, with Luther and Cody joining her on the album.  Robert Plant joined in on the recording, contributing backing vocals.

The interview and new album from Patty Griffin brings together two of Jim Dickinson's greatest legacies, the Zebra Ranch studio and his dear sons.

Listen to the interview here:
http://www.npr.org/2013/06/07/189504039/patty-griffin-on-world-cafe
   

Patty Griffin
courtesy of the artist

Poster from 1963 Memphis Folk Music Festival

In our last post, we wrote about the recent performance of the North Mississippi Allstars and the Sons of Mudboy coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the ""first Jim Dickinson Folk Festival at the Shell in 1963."  Many thanks to Ron Hall for providing a copy of a poster promoting the Aug. 10, 1963, event featuring Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Jim Vinson, Colin and Kathleen, Bill Teague, Bob Knott, Steve and Valerie Lord, Laura Gregory, and Horace Hall.

Amazing to have these memories shared after 50 years.

North Mississippi Allstars & Sons of Mudboy Pay Tribute to Jim Dickinson at the Levitt Shell in Memphis

On May 23, 2013, the North Mississippi Allstars and the Sons of Mudboy played the Levitt Shell in Memphis in a show that was advertised ast the 50th anniversary of the "first Jim Dickinson Folk Festival at the Shell in 1963."

A couple of good articles were published in advance of the show.

Bridging the Blues Blog
http://www.bridgingtheblues.com/2013/05/north-mississippi-allstars-sons-of.html

This Thursday Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars pay tribute to their late father, Jim Dickinson, with a show at the Levitt Shell advertised as the 50th anniversary of the "first Jim Dickinson Folk Festival at the Shell in 1963." The elder Dickinson was an important member of the Memphis folk community, a story that's well documented in Robert Gordon's book It Came From Memphis. There's a really good article about the 1963 show as well as Thursday's event by Bob Mehr in this week's Commercial Appeal.

 

Keyboardist/vocalist Dickinson later formed an electric blues-rock band called Mudboy and the Neutrons together with Jimmy Crosthwait (washboard), Lee Baker (guitar), and guitarist/vocalist Sid Selvidge, a native of Greenville who died last month. The "Sons of Mudboy," who will also perform Thursday include Crosthwait, Luther and Cody Dickinson, Sid Selvidge's son Steve, Lee Baker's son Ben, and Paul Taylor, who played together with Luther and Cody in DDT.

 

I spoke with Luther today, and he told me that he'll be performing a special show at the upcoming North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic together with Lightin' Malcolm (who has been playing bass with the Allstars regularly since Chris Chew left the group for health reasons), T-Model Ford's grandson "Stud" on drums, and Sharde Thomas--Cody will not be appearing. The Allstars' new CD, which will come out August on their own Songs of the South label, will feature Chew, Lightnin' Malcolm, Sharde Thomas, Kenny Brown, Duwayne Burnside, and some vintage sounds from Otha Turner--Luther produced both of his solo CDs.

 

Go Memphis

http://www.gomemphis.com/news/2013/may/16/dickinson-brothers-kick-off-levitt-shell-spring/

Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1963, Jim Dickinson became the first independent promoter to stage a show at the city-owned Overton Park Shell.

The event he put together was billed as the Memphis Folk Festival, though it would be referred to commonly in the press as a hootenanny, specifically “the loudest hootenanny ever hooted!”

At the time, the national folk craze was in full effect, but Dickinson wanted to highlight a rawer brand of regional roots music. “It’s time people learned that there are more kinds of folk music than The Kingston Trio,” he told The Commercial Appeal in March of that year.

Much to the surprise of the city fathers, Dickinson’s concert program drew some 3,000 Memphians to the park, each paying $1 each to see an assortment of acts playing blues, Appalachian mountain songs, Civil War ballads, and European folk numbers. Dickinson himself, described by the newspaper as the “Decibel King,” played guitar with a “mouth organ attached to a rack hanging on his neck,” becoming a one-man band.

Now, a half-century later, the late Dickinson’s sons, Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, will kick off the free concert series Thursday at the renamed Levitt Shell at Overton Park.

For the Dickinson boys, who grew up playing the Shell, it remains treasured experience. “Man, it’s just a classic American amphitheater, and we’re so proud of it,” says Luther Dickinson. “We’ve played so many countless ‘Save the Shell’ shows and punk- rock Earth Day benefits back in the day. And so we’re pleased that it’s still there. It’s a landmark for Memphis, and something to really be proud of.”

After a couple decades of instability, the Shell’s fate finally stabilized in 2008 with the patronage of the Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation. Since then, the charitable organization has helped fund the refurbishing and redevelopment of the Shell, which now stages two annual free concert seasons, as well as special events, film screenings and other community activities throughout the year.

Still, there’s nothing quite like the experience of seeing and hearing music at the venue. It’s a feeling few know better than guitarist/singer Luther Dickinson. “It’s a completely unique experience the way the sound resonates at the Shell,” says Dickinson, who will open Thursday’s show with an acoustic performance as part of the second-generation Memphis band Sons of Mudboy. “Playing acoustic is a real cool trip; the Shell itself is a natural amplifier. I like setting up way back in the back, and letting the Shell itself push the sound out forward.”

The headlining set from North Mississippi Allstars — which currently features the Dickinsons and bassist Lightnin’ Malcolm — will likely feature some of the same folk and blues songs that were played in 1963. The Allstars’ set will offer a preview of their new album, World Boogie Is Coming, due out in August on their own Songs of the South label.

“It’s largely a record of traditionals. It’s like a party blues record. I think our people are going to dig it,” Dickinson says of the album, which includes regional and hill country standards like “Jumper on the Line,” “Going to Brownsville” and “Snake Drive.” “It has lot of crowd pleasers that we’ve never recorded before. We had a blast recording it, with a lot of cool guests.”

Sons of Mudboy - Reviving the Spirit

Mudboy wallows in tradition, inspiration of old blues, early rock and roll

Memphis Commercial Appeal
By Mark Jordan

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Photo courtesy of Big Hassle Luther Dickinson

More than 40 years after they first took the stage of a Midtown Memphis Jewish community center — faces painted, bodies wrapped in ridiculous costumes — to belt out their own raucous brand of Memphis blues, Mud Boy & the Neutrons (“that great band nobody can find”) still looms large over the Memphis music scene. And for the sons of the group’s members, now influential professional musicians in their own right, the band’s influence is even greater.

“In a general sense, they embodied an embracing of mayhem and good songs and good music,” says guitarist Steve Selvidge, son of the group’s honey-voiced vocalist Sid Selvidge, acknowledging that his perspective is skewed due to his closeness to the players. “I saw it as looking up (to them). So to me it looked like the most fun thing ever.”

PHOTO BY NIKKI BOERTMAN

Beginning Wednesday, Selvidge, Luther and Cody Dickinson, sons of late Mud Boy keyboardist and vocalist Jim Dickinson, and adopted Mud Boy progeny Paul Taylor will begin to revive the spirit of the cult favorite group. Playing as the Sons of Mudboy, the quartet will begin an open-ended weekly gig at Minglewood Hall’s 1884 Lounge, a routine designed, like their inspiration, to allow the members to indulge their love of prewar blues and early rock ‘n’ roll.

“This is something we’ve all long wanted to do for a long time,” says Taylor, a second-generation Memphis musician through his father Pat Taylor. “I feel like we’re all old enough to play the music well.”

PHOTO BY ALAN SPEARMAN

When Selvidge, Dickinson, guitarist Lee Baker, and percussionist Jimmy Crosthwait first formed Mud Boy & the Neutrons in 1972 (the name was provided by Dickinson’s friend Ry Cooder), it was their attempt to emulate the bluesmen they had grown up loving. In his book “It Came From Memphis,” author Robert Gordon called them “the missing link between the Rolling Stones and Furry Lewis,” the Memphis bluesman who was a particular hero to all four.

As with most missing links, there were more reports of Mud Boy & the Neutrons than actual sightings. After its initial debut, the group played only sporadically over the next 25 years, recording only one hard-to-find record and a live album.

Their output was so slight that when Dickinson recorded with Bob Dylan in the late ’90s, he was shocked to learn the legendary singer-songwriter had heard of them,

“Ah, yeah, sure,” Dickinson quoted Dylan as saying in a 1997 Commercial Appeal article, “that great band nobody can find.”

Baker died in 1996 and Dickinson in 2009. Original Mud Boys Selvidge and Crosthwait joined the Sons of Mudboy members on stage for a Dickinson tribute in 2011, but the group has not been heard of since, and Selvidge is currently recuperating from cancer.

No one is quite sure exactly when the Sons of Mudboy began. The Dickinsons and Selvidge go back to childhood. Taylor joined the mix as a teenager, playing with Steve at first at the old Babylon Café and then with the Dickinsons in their first big project D.D.T. About that time, the name Sons of Mudboy started being used whenever the younger players would back up the original group at their occasional shows.

In 2005, Selvidge and the Dickinsons recorded some unreleased sessions with Jim Dickinson under the name. In 2009, the Grammy nominated all-star tribute to the elder Dickinson, Onward and Upward, was credited to Luther Dickinson & the Sons of Mudboy.

But with the instigation of a weekly gig, the group feels more official than ever. All four still maintain busy music careers. Selvidge plays in the Brooklyn alternative rock band the Hold Steady, who are working on a new album, and he’s slated to record with best-selling Swedish blues artist Louise Hoffsten in Memphis this summer. Taylor is working on an album with his band the Merry Mobile and gigs regularly with Hope Clayburn, the Mighty Soul Brass Band, and as a solo. And Luther Dickinson, no longer a part of the reunited Black Crowes, is ever busy with his brother Cody in the blues jam band the North Mississippi Allstars.

So by necessity, Taylor says, the weekly Sons of Mudboy gigs will be a fluid affair, with members coming and going as schedules allow, guests sitting in, the set ever in flux as the musicians look to balance the traditions of the old bluesmen, the original Mud Boys and their own influences.

“There’s stuff we’re really into that Mudboy never played but it kind of works stylistically,” says Selvidge, looking forward to working in songs by Texas R&B great Doug Sahm and early Mid-South bluesman Joe Callicott, alongside originals from the entire Mud Boy family. “There’s going to be no set rules.”

SXSW 2013 Panel Discussion - I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone: Life & Times of Jim Dickinson

I'M JUST DEAD, I'M NOT GONE: LIFE & TIMES OF JIM DICKINSON
Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 15

Memphis' Jim Dickinson, whether you realize it or not, had been at the heart of rock & roll from its inception until his death at 67 in 2009. Musician on historic records – his piano's on the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" – and producer for countless more (Big Star'sThird, the Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me), not to mention rascal and raconteur, this panel's title – his self-composed epitaph – emphasized the truth Dickinson always told, sometimes to his detriment. To know Dickinson and to work with him was to love him, and this chorus of cohorts and loved ones testified by its roster alone: his widow Mary, sons Luther and Cody of North Mississippi Allstars, Big Star's Jody Stephens, Mojo Nixon, studio cohort Jim Lancaster, and panel moderator Joe Nick Patoski, who managed True Believers when Dickinson produced them. As a group, they brought the man's generous, warped, hilarious spirit to life with an hour of anecdotal evidence of his importance. Jim Dickinson's great rock & roll codes: "If it don't shock the parents, it ain't rock & roll!" And, "My job is to protect the artist from the label!" Don't forget, "Never carry more than you can swallow!" Words to live by, all.

Courtesy of The Austin Chronicle
Reviewed By Tim Stegall, Fri., March 15, 2013

Jim's Greatest Legacy

 Jim's greatest legacy are undoubtedly his

sons, Luther and Cody.  Carrying the music

of our neighborhood they learned from Jim,

Otha Turner, Junior Kimbrough, and R.L.

Burnside and family to the world with 

their band, 3 time Grammy nominated

North Mississippi Allstars, the "boys"

will be busy next week in Austin, TX at

the SXSW Music Festival.  Here is their 

schedule:

 

>March 13
The Parish – 12:30am

>March 14
St. David’s Episcopal Church – 11:30p (Luther only)
Tompkins Square Label Show

>March 15
Austin Convention Center (Room 12AB) – 12:30p
Panel: Life and Times of Jim Dickinson

San Jose Hotel – 7:00pm
South by San Jose

>March 16
The Continental Club – 12:30p (Luther only)
Mojo’s Mayham!

Auditorium Shores – 8:00p
Levon Helm Benefit (Luther/Cody guest sit ins)

Jim Dickinson's Legacy- Updated

Newspapers come and go.  Facebook is fleeting.
Hopefully this blog will be a more permanent
record of Jim's Legacy.  To sum up 2012, Jim had
three new records released and was posthumously
inducted with the inaugural group of stars into the
Memphis Music Hall of Fame, sponsored by the
Rock 'n' Soul Museum and the Smithsonian.
Move over, Elvis, Jerry Lee, and Howlin' Wolf!

Jim's live performance was recorded at the New
Daisy on Beale Street in 2006, backed by North
Mississippi Allstars with Jimmy Davis on rhythm
guitar and vocals.  Released by Memphis Interna-
tional Records in 2012, "I'm Just Dead, I'm not
Gone" reached #1 on Sirius Radio.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/im-just-dead-
im-not-gone-mw0002371647 to hear music

The great  label Arf Arf  Records put out Jim's
Knowbody Else cd called "Soldiers of Pure
Peace."  This was produced and engineered by
Jim at Ardent Records in 1967.  It is the previously
unreleased masterpiece by the band that later
became Black Oak Arkansas. Words cannot
describe the psychedelic fury uncaged in this
music but your ears will understand.

"With a decades-long career as an iconoclastic
musical polymath, Jim Dickinson needs little
introduction. However, his rarely-discussed
apprenticeship as a producer-engineer at Ardent
Studios in the late 1960s made Dickinson
responsible for many of the wildest and wackiest
sessions ever held in Memphis. Some excerpts
slipped out at the time on obscure singles on Stax
and elsewhere, such as the absurd version of
‘For Your Love’ by Honey Jug. “Whenever
anybody came into Ardent, it was obvious who
was going to do the crazy stuff, ”Dickinson
recounted to me several years ago. The bands
he produced there include the pyjama-wearing
Kinks-ish Wallabys of Jackson, Mississippi and
psychedelic hillbillies Knowbody Else, later to
become famous as Black Oak Arkansas."

About the new Ace Record, "Feeling High-The
Psychedelic Sounds of Memphis"
compiled byAlec Paleo
- See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/
feeling-high-the-psychedelic-sound-of-
memphis#sthash.JCvizBHG.dpuf


Coming up for Jim in 2013 is a panel at SXSW
called "I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone- The Life
And Times of Jim Dickinson" on March 15, in
Austin, Texas.  Hope you can come.

There's lots more GREAT news- too fresh to
discuss.  Coming soon....

Another Great Jim Dickinson Song

 https://soundcloud.com/playgroundrecording/love-is-strange