Blues & Ballads: A Folksinger's Songbook, Vols. 1-2 is the solo album
Luther Dickinson has been hinting at for half a decade. In 2010,
Home Sweet Home, a collection of old-time folk and blues standards, appeared by
the South Memphis String Band (a collective of
Dickinson,
Alvin Youngblood Hart, and
Jimbo Mathus). Two years later, its follow-up,
Old Times There..., was one of three
Dickinson-related albums released on the same day; the others were
Hambone's Meditations (solo guitar instrumentals inspired by
Jack Rose and the Takoma School) and Go on Now, You Can't Stay Here: Mississippi Folk Music, Vol. 3 (with
the Wandering, an acoustic vocal group featuring
Dickinson, Sharde Thomas,
Amy LaVere, and
Shannon McNally). Most of the aforementioned are present here, as are appearances by
Mavis Staples,
Jason Isbell, Will Sexton,
JJ Grey, and others.
Dickinson has been collecting songbooks and sheet music throughout his life. Though he wrote or co-wrote all 21 songs here, they have been inspired by tunes he learned and people and traditions he learned from. The production is intimate, stripped down. Voices and guitars are prominent, but drums, blues fife, and an upright piano and organ are heard here and there. All the songs were recorded live in the studio at various times, often in a single take. Fans of
North Mississippi Allstars may recognize "Hurry Up Sunrise." It was worked up from an idea
Otha Turner gave
Dickinson. It was a blazing blues-rocker on
Electric Blue Watermelon. Here, it's a sweet folk-blues with upright bass, electric slide guitar, and male-female duet vocals. There are several gospel blues tunes centering on mortality, passage, and transition. None are morbid. "Ain't No Grave," written just after the passage of
Dickinson's dad, was cut in a single take with
Staples, with his electric slide guitar the only accompaniment. Deeply moving, it is an exceptional moment. "Let It Roll" showcases
Charles Hodges' B-3 as the testifying preacher instrument.
Dickinson,
LaVere, Thomas, and Lillie Mae Rische provide duet and chorus vocals. Thomas' blues fife make the acoustic country blues "My Leavin'" as tender as it is profound. "Bang Bang Lulu," co-written with his father, is a house-rent boogie with swinging fiddle, Beale Street piano, tub-thumping bass, maracas, and searing slide guitar. "Highwater (Soldier)," with its martial drumming and gutbucket bassline, is raw, uptempo 21st century Delta blues. The
South Memphis String Band reunites on the
Mathus/
Dickinson number "Shake (Yo Mama)." Banjo, mandolin, and acoustic guitar deliver a hard-grooving tribute to
Slim Harpo's "Shake Your Hips." Blues & Ballads: A Folksinger's Songbook, Vols. 1-2 is a musical autobiography. For
Dickinson, blues and folk music are living traditions that continue to inform his geography, and his life and work within it. It's fortunate that he considered these songbooks worth sharing. ~ Thom Jurek