James Luther Dickinson, a musician, producer and patriarch of Southern music, died Sunday after heart bypass surgery. He was 67. In the 1980s I worked with this guy, John W. King, who was an A&R guy at Stax Records in Memphis back in the day. One of his co-workers at Stax was a young Bill Browder, who would later become the country singer T.G. Sheppard. And one of his good buddies was James Luther Dickinson.
Written by our contributing reviewer Jeff Balke … check out his blog here
The Brothers Robinson return with their first studio album in eight years in Warpaint, a classic mix of rock and blues infused with soul and gospel, tinged religious metaphor and loaded with memorable hooks. The Black Crowes added a few new members since Lions including guitarist Luther Dickinson from the North Mississippi All-Stars and introduces the Crowes to life as an indie band (the first on their Silver Arrow label).
While many of the sounds on Warpaint will be familiar to Crowes fans – few moreso than the swingy rocker “Evergreen” and the single “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution” – independence agrees with the Robinsons as they stretch their musical wings on the Beatle-influenced rocker “Wounded Bird,” dig in to some authentic southern gospel on “God’s Got It” and get psychedelic with “Movin’ On Down the Line.”
The disc seems to slip a bit toward the end with the ghost town country ballad “There’s Gold in Them Hills” and the trippy Zep-inspired acoustic of “Here Comes the Daylight,” but the meat of the record, including the absolutely breathtaking ballad “Oh Josephine,” sounds like the Crowes have embraced their newly found freedom and that is a very good thing for listeners.
30 Days Out 