North Mississippi Allstars - Keys to the Kingdom (2011/2017) [Hi-Res]

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 Keys to the Kingdom CD music.

Despite the sobering circumstances, the band focused on their father's motto -- "I will not celebrate death" -- as the m Keys to the Kingdom album for sale. o for the sessions Keys to the Kingdom songs. 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. Keys to the Kingdom album for sale by North Mississippi Allstars was released Mar 15, 2011 on the Songs Of The South label.

„Keys to the Kingdom is the most personal recording in the North Mississippi Allstars catalog. That said, "personal" doesn't mean "quiet." It was recorded at their home Zebra Studios in the aftermath of Cody and Luther Dickinson's father, musician, producer, and Southern music historian Jim Dickinson's passing and the birth of Luther's first child. The words "Produced for Jim Dickinson" that adorn the album's back sleeve offer a hint as to the album's sound. The metallic sheen that permeated 2008's Hernando has been stripped away to make room for the most stripped-down recording since the band's debut album, Shake Hands with Shorty. The sounds here have been informed by Cody and bassist Chris Chew's side project, the Hill Country Revue, and Luther's involvement with the Black Crowes and the South Memphis String Band. The latter released the Grammy-nominated Home Sweet Home. Also nominated for a Grammy (and influential here) is Onward & Upward, cut by the brothers under the moniker of Luther Dickinson & the Sons of Mudboy, a few days after their father's funeral. "This A'Way" kicks things off with a raw, bluesy, barroom rocker à la the Rolling Stones (circa Exile), with Spooner Oldham's pounding upright piano keeping time through the changes just under the blazing guitars, the crackling snare, and the hi-hat. "Jumpercable Blues" is a rowdy, pissed-off, down-home blues with Gordie Johnson's guitar teaming with Luther's. "The Meeting" is swampy, gutbucket, gospel blues starring Mavis Staples. Ry Cooder guests with his trademark slide guitar on the stellar "Ain't No Grave," in which Luther sings, "I would hope to be as brave as he was/ On judgment day/Ain't no grave can hold his body down...." Alvin Youngblood Hart -- also a member of the South Memphis String Band -- guests on harmonica and vocals on the strolling backporch blues of "Ol Cannonball." The clamoring "New Orleans Walkin' Dead" is a declamatory boasting stomp with Hart screaming on harmonica; it humorously celebrates zombie love. The set closes with the easy groove "Jellyrollin' All Over Heaven," a celebration of eternal life with Chew's bumping bassline countered by Cody's popping snare and Luther's dirty-assed slide guitar, before a solo Oldham piano coda takes them out. Keys to the Kingdom may have been recorded in response to death and birth but it is, more than anything else, a celebration of all that Jim Dickinson held dear in life and music, which are, after all, the same thing.“ (Thom Jurek, AMG)

Luther Dickinson, guitars, vocals
Cody Dickinson, drums, vocals
Chris Chew, bass, vocals
Mavis Staples, vocals
Spooner Oldham, piano
Gordie Johnson, guitar
Jack Ashford, tambourine
Alvin Youngblood Hart, vocals, harmonica
Jim Spake, saxophones, clarinet

Digitally remastered