North Mississippi Hill country blues, if you are not familiar with the style, focuses on the groove and uses a hell of a lot of slide guitar. This groove, or continuous, steady, driving rhythm, makes it some of the best music on this planet to shake ‘what your Mumma gave you’.
Carrying on the tradition of Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, and others are the Dickinson brothers, Luther and Cody, who deliver their take on this blues form under the name of the North Mississippi Allstars. Performing as a three-piece, with Lightnin’ Malcom delivering on bass and more, this trio delivered in spades. With an early kick off time at The Basement of 8.30pm, and no support act, we were going to get every card in their hand played.
Luther Dickinson provided some scintillating and awe-inspiring slide and blues. He simply was on fire, wowing the crowd with his virtuosity during ‘Shimmy She Wobble’, ‘My Babe’, and ‘Sitting On Top Of The World’. With his brother Cody laying down the beat on drums, this was a jaw-dropping, fabulous way to kick off proceedings.
Most guitarists need six strings to make the room boogie, but this Dickinson guitarist proved his place in the Top 100 Guitarists on the planet by cutting it down to four. Playing his cigar-box guitar on the driving ‘Mississippi Boll Weevil’, he continued to display his slide prowess. Later on, the maestro cut it down to two strings on the Muddy Water’s tune ‘Rollin’ And Tumblin’’. Using a guitar manufactured from a string-bean tin can and two strings, the Hill country groove was plucked out of this somewhat anachronistic device.
Lightnin’ Malcolm, who had played at The Basement once before with The Two Man Wrecking Crew (Cedric Burnside and himself), traded his bass for Luther’s guitar and took us through a collection of songs during the set, with a highlight being ‘Boogie’. This was the turning point, where the room evolved into a sweaty juke joint as more people continued to convulse with dance moves and hollers.
Cody Dickinson broke out his washboard for some electronic funky beats on ‘Psychedelic Sex Machine’. Later on, with the crowd lubricated and loose, he took lead vocals for ‘Granny, Does Your Dog Bite’. This was extended to all three band members grabbing drums and mamboing through the crowd until Cody was hoisted onto shoulders by the throng to finish the song. Joyous smiles from the band were mirrored by those from the audience.
Closing the night with Burnside and Kimbrough songs is usually the way these boys travel, and this show was no exception. The couplet of ‘Poor Black Mattie’ and ‘Skinny Woman’ was lapped up by the eager dancers up front. ‘Goin’ Down South’ and ‘All Night Long’ were smoking, the latter song name a sentiment to how long the crowd would’ve stayed to hear the tunes from this cult band.
Luther Dickinson and Lightnin’ Malcom made it clear to the audience that they had loved their short trip to Australia and that they would be coming back someday soon. World boogie is here, and this is the band to take you there.
