North Mississippi Allstars: Shakin’ On It
Photo credit: Michael Emanuele
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For the impending 25th anniversary of North Mississippi Allstars’ Grammy nominated debut album, Shake Hands with Shorty, the band’s guitarist, singer and co-founder, Luther Dickinson, had been thinking about a suitable celebration. He wanted to mark the milestone with a box set, including a rerelease of the seminal record, a newly pressed vinyl version and a host of outtakes and bonus tracks. Then, Luther ran into a licensing roadblock.
Shake Hands with Shorty had been more than just a hip-rattling first salvo from Luther, his brother and drummer, Cody Dickinson, and bassist Chris Chew. It was, in essence, a gateway into a beautifully beguiling sound born of, fermented in and generationally representing the Hill Country of North Mississippi. It was, as well, a tribute to the criminally under-recognized artistry of roots and folk-blues pioneers Fred McDowell, R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, featuring covers of their eminently influential work.
Unfortunately, the red tape for obtaining the old material from the 2000 release, for a reissue a quarter-century later, proved prohibitive. Luther’s celebratory plan was not going to happen. “It pissed me off,” Luther says. “And I said, ‘Fuck it. Let’s just make a new record in the spirit of it.’ As my father would say, ‘Revenge is the most noble of all motivations.’”
The resulting collection is Still Shakin’, an 11-song set loaded with new nods to McDowell, Burnside and Kimbrough, boasting a bevy of special guests and another rather satisfying retort to the music industry. It’s just part and parcel for a band that’s followed their singular, rebellious spirit for almost three decades.
“It was around 1996—Cody and I were hanging out with a friend in rural Mississippi, and we were picking motorcycles and riding mushrooms all day,” Luther says with a laugh, remembering the project’s humble origins. “By the end of the night, we’re with this dude, and he lived in this shitty, single-wide trailer out behind his grandmother’s house—no AC, hot as fuck. This is Mississippi dirtbag summer heaven. We’re listening to a cassette of Mississippi Fred McDowell. I’m lying on this thick, green, shag carpet and it all just comes to me in a flash—‘We’ll start a loose collective of musicians to interpret and play this music.’”
Really, though, the story of the North Mississippi Allstars goes back a bit further, to the siblings’ father, Jim “East Memphis Slim” Dickinson. Jim was a maverick, a Memphis-reared piano player and record producer whose legacy includes session work with Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. He was also a guitarist and singer who liked to rework roots and folk traditionals into psychedelic exercises. He raised the boys in Tennessee, then moved the family, in the mid-1980s, to the Mississippi Hill Country, where the two teens quickly became immersed in the ways of Otha Turner’s annual goat roast and other local legends.
“North Mississippi is a culturally enlightened place. I experienced so much love, so much open and welcoming togetherness; it was overwhelming,” Cody says. “I experienced real harmony of life and fun—family, tradition, music, food, dancing, you name it. Real community.”
It was in that community that the brothers learned, firsthand, the rich musical traditions of their forefathers. Luther and Cody promptly formed a rock-and-roll band that went nowhere fast. Then, Luther’s trailer revelation changed everything.
“No one around home cared about our rock-and-roll band,” Luther says. “But, as soon as we started this one, everything just started gradually ramping up. It seemed like the right thing to do. And, it was the first time we grew into and participated in our father’s tradition.”
With Chew on bass, they toured the South relentlessly and sold cassettes of their nascent recordings out of the trunk of the car. The trio drew attention from music execs as well—Luther started keeping a folder of all the recording contract offers the Allstars had rejected.
Eventually, they signed on with Tone-Cool Records, an indie label in Massachusetts, to release their debut. “Shake hands with Shorty was a R.L. Burnside joke that he’d say when he had to excuse himself to use the restroom,” Luther says. “To me, to shake hands with Shorty meant making a deal with the devil and us finally getting involved in the music industry.”
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In spite of that first album’s success, Luther resisted calls to duplicate the concept. Instead, the Allstars cultivated their own songwriting, expanding the reach of the music’s roots. They became a tour de force on the road—a working-class band taking any chance to play, from massive festivals to backyard picnics—with sets often lasting over two hours. The brothers also branched out, building their own home studios, turning out solo material and partnering up with both newfound friends and the offspring of Burnside and Kimbrough.
True to Luther’s vision of a loose collective, their albums routinely featured like-minded guests. And, following Chew’s departure in 2012, the brothers have welcomed several bassists into the fold, including Oteil Burbridge, Jesse Williams and the late Carl Dufrene. However, it was ripples from a collaboration for The Word project back in 2000—when the Allstars teamed up with keyboardist John Medeski and a then-unknown sacred-steel guitarist named Robert Randolph—that set the stage for their latest lineup shift.
“All these years later, with musicians from the gospel and sacred-steel communities, it’s still such a fruitful collaboration,” Luther says. “And, it was Robert Randolph that introduced us to Joey Williams and Ray Ray.”
Both proficient as multi-instrumentalists, Joey Williams and Rayfield “Ray Ray” Hollman are the newest Allstars. While each makes his recording debut with the band on Still Shakin’, the two have been cycling in and out of the touring unit in recent years. Williams, of The Blind Boys of Alabama fame, and Ray Ray, whose other gigs include Eminem and Ne-Yo, bring yet another shift to the shape of the North Mississippi sound.
“With Joey and Ray Ray, it’s like we’re firing on all cylinders,” Cody says. “They’re incredibly talented. We’re able to swap instruments at the drop of a hat. It’s so fun and so crazy. But the main thing is that they come from musical families. We grew up the same way. What makes the Allstars exciting, at its core, is the combination of blues, rock-and-roll and gospel. There has to be a gospel element to the drive.”
After Luther’s initial anniversary idea was thwarted, he reconsidered his approach to recording an album, particularly now that the newly reconfigured Allstars grew stronger and more dynamic with every live performance. He began tracking in January of 2024 at his home studio in Mississippi, using experiments to “trick” himself into laying down songs.
“I didn’t want to get hung up with what the arrangement is—doing a breakdown or doing something over again,” Luther says. “Instead, I thought, ‘What if I used this amp plugged straight in to the recording? Or, what if I used this crazy, old guitar and tuned it down?’ Before we knew it, we had a handful of songs started.”
He flipped files over to Cody, who cut drums at his own home studio, then passed them back to Luther. Cody, too, used the sessions as an opportunity for more in-the moment spontaneity. “For lack of a better term, I call it jam recording,” Cody says. “Sometimes we’re in the room together, and other times, we’re layering it like some kind of art piece.”
Once he’d secured a proper drum take, Cody would then extend the groove, pushing the beat into the beyond. What ended up on the final cut are several songs whose outros serve as launching pads for raw, organic and trippy improvisations, full of colorful interplay between Luther, Ray Ray and Joey. “We record long and loose, and then we edit later,” Luther says. “You can’t play with us and be looking for an arrangement or looking for a chord chart. You’ve got to be able to roll.”
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Over the course of 2024, the North Mississippi Allstars recorded when and where they could, either trading files digitally or working live in studios during off-days on the road. They logged time in Nashville, New Orleans, Little Rock, Ark., and Greensboro, N.C., among others. They worked with the legendary Boo Mitchell in Memphis and set up shop in Holly Springs, in the heart of North Mississippi Hill Country, at the Burnside Bar and Grill Juke Joint.
The brothers served as the album’s producers, leaning into the freedom they’ve held from the start. A 30-year history has only empowered them more, just as it’s inspired industry suits to offer suggestions for something more commercially motivated. “I’ve had a couple meetings like that. And that’s a sure-fire way to not work with me,” Luther says. “As sons of a very my-way-or-the-highway record producer, we are independently rebellious to a fault. We’ve never made a record we didn’t want to make.”
Still Shakin’ immediately recalls the spirit of their debut, showcasing renditions of Burnside, Kimbrough and McDowell nuggets that long have been in the Allstars’ live sets. There are also a few standards— ones in the lexicon of any musician in North Mississippi worth his or her salt—such as Robert Johnson’s “Preachin’ Blues” and a pair, “K.C. Jones” and “John Henry,” from Walter “Furry” Lewis. In “John Henry,” Luther sees the age-old parable of man versus machine playing out today, as artists battle the looming threat of AI. “That’s the beauty of folk music. It’s still relevant,” Luther says. “Songs are funny, man. Over the years, I’ve followed that easy muse, of how songs come into your life when the time is right.”
As with any Allstars effort, the album welcomes a few friends to the picnic. Sharisse and Shontelle Norman once again enhance the band with their radiant vocals. Trae Pierce and Kashiah Hunter provide bass and steel guitar, respectively. Widespread Panic’s JoJo Hermann contributes keyboards, while guitarists/vocalists Duwayne Burnside and Robert Kimbrough stand as robust contemporary reps of their fathers’ legacies.
There is also an appearance on bass from Grahame Lesh, the elder son of the late Phil Lesh. Cody and Luther were frequent guests of the legendary Grateful Dead bassist. Both brothers testify that those experiences playing with Phil, to whom Still Shakin’ is dedicated, are among the more gratifying of their lives.
“I was able to work with a true innovator— a master. Every hero’s journey needs a mentor,” Cody says. “Phil created what we are doing, and we got to go all the way back to the root. Playing in Phil’s club with Phil was exactly like playing in Junior Kimbrough’s club with Junior. You’re absolutely terrified, but that’s how you learn.”
Luther doubles down and agrees. “Hand to hand, face to face, are the best ways to learn the craft,” he says. “To play with R.L. Burnside, even to stand in the wings and keep his whiskey glass full, that changed my life. Same with Phil Lesh— Phil taught me that repertoire, by hand, song by song. He came to me once after a set and he said, ‘You have the proper type of mind.’ I was like, ‘Oh, my god. That’s the best compliment anyone has ever given me.’”
Luther’s proper type of mind shines in choosing “Pray for Peace” as one of the three originals on Still Shakin’. Initially emerging from a Brooklyn studio jam with Burbridge, the song—then alternately titled—was the titular track of the Allstars’ 2017 album, Prayer for Peace. That same year, Williams and The Blind Boys of Alabama offered their own take.
Luther saw the opportunity to record the protest song a third time—as a hybridized new version featuring Williams—simply as a way to document their present partnership. Yet, it’s the track’s renewed call for a color blind world that resonates, sadly, as a commentary on modern times.
“Protest songs are the hardest ones to write because it’s such a minefield. You have to be really careful,” Luther says. “But, I never wanted my children to say, ‘Why didn’t you speak up? You speak into a microphone every night. You make records. Why didn’t you speak up for these people or this situation?’ But, this shit is so off the chain right now, I almost feel naïve singing those lyrics. What is it really doing? How much is it helping? That type of pursuit, you have to constantly re-evaluate.”
Twenty-five years after they first shook hands with Shorty, there is no stopping North Mississippi Allstars and their pursuit. “The anniversary aspect is so cool. It still feels just as raw as it ever did,” Cody says. “Yeah, man, the mission is the same. World boogie is coming. Shake it ‘til you break it.”
