I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release,
Prayer For Peace,
North Mississippi Allstars and it's terrific! Opening with title track,
Prayer for Peace, brothers Luther (guitar and vocal) and Cody (drums, piano, synth bass, programming and vocals) Dickinson are back and stronger than ever. Joined by Oteil Burbridge, Graeme Lesh, Sharisse Norman, Danielle Nicole, Dominic Davis and Sharde Thomas this track has honest roots.
Need To Be Free is an intense track with a heavy bass line and wild, frantic guitar riffs. One of my favorites! RL Burnside track,
Miss Maybelle is a stripped down Juke Joint kind of blues track with simple drum and razor sharp slide work. Very strong!
Run Red Rooster is a super blues rocker with a great driving guitar riff and tight drums. Dickinson's vocals are concise and his guitar playing ruthless. Sit still during this one! Twenties folk track,
Stealin' is covered here with a slight rock overtone and slick slide work. Just the right spin for this classic. Another of my favorites on the release is
Deep Ellum, another traditional folk track with a swampy, funky, bluesy feel. Cody's piano work plays nicely against Luther's stellar slide work on this nicely laid back track. R.L. Burnside's
Bird Without A Feather is off the charts. Cody really hits the spot with drums and Luther's grinding guitar riffs soar! Excellent! In a fusion between contemporary music and primitive blues, Mississippi Fred and Rev Gary are smiling at this adaptation of their traditional track,
You Got To Move. Another RL Burnside track,
Long Haired Doney, is another exceptional track. These guys have a knack to milk every drop of blues from a track and this is no exception. Keeping it's original blues feel but pushing it to the max with driving drums and relentless guitar riffs, this it really terrific! Traditional folk track,
Bid You Goodnight, maintains some of the jam feel put on it by The Dead, but also maintains some of the innocence of the original track, all spun up in the Allstar's web. Very nice. Wrapping the release is a remix of
Prayer For Peace with synth bass work by Cody and traditional blues vocals by Luther and Sherde'. Very cool conclusion to one of the best releases I've heard this year.
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