The North Mississippi Allstars get a groove on for Polaris
by Michelle Nikolai

Touring heavily takes its toll on even the most seasoned road dogs, including the North Mississippi Allstars. Luther Dickinson, singer/ guitarist for the band, is yawning even though it's late afternoon on a Friday, as he talks about their latest release, Polaris. The album was over a year in the making, but the band couldn't be happier with the end result.

"We tour constantly, so we did the basic tracks in like 10 days, and then off and on, whenever we'd get home we'd go back in the studio," Dickinson explains. "We finished the record in January [2003] but then the distribution changed, and we went back and sang some stuff and remixed about half of the record - that was cool, because it turned out a lot better for it."

The album was originally to be distributed by Artemis Records, but Dave Matthews' label, ATO, acquired the rights. The release date was pushed back from April to September, 2003.

The adventurous end result crosses several genres musically but maintains the groovin' hill country blues sound that the Allstars are known for, with a pop sensibility that will surprise their long-time fans. Luther and younger brother Cody, the band's drummer and keyboardist, co-produced the effort. After all, they started to visualize it back when they were working on their 1999 debut, Shake Hands With Shorty. "We knew basically it would be our most self-indulgent record," Luther says. "However, it wasn't completely planned - we recorded 36 songs and picked from the best."

This time around, they tracked at historic Ardent Studios in Memphis instead of their father's barn (known as the Zebra Ranch, it's the home studio of legendary rock producer and sideman Jim Dickinson). Ardent has been the creative compound for artists as diverse as REM, James Taylor, ZZ Top, Gin Blossoms, Big Star, and more recently Evanescence, to name a few, so the good vibes were coursing through the Allstars' veins.

"I watched The Replacements work there with my dad, and of course, Alex Chilton and Big Star, and those two - especially at that period of time - were the influences I grew up with. I was kind of re-embracing them at the time," Luther says. "There's such a tradition there, I wanted to be able to take part in it. This was kind of like our country-boy-moved-to-the-city record."

Bassist Chris Chew and second guitarist Duwayne Burnside (son of blues great R.L. Burnside) round out the Allstars lineup. This is the first album that Burnside has made with the band, although he's been touring with them since their second record, 51 Phantom, was released. "Man, time flies - it's just great, great guitar, great singing, great guy. And of course, his father is one of my heroes," Dickinson enthuses.

Luther and Cody played guitars together as kids under the tutelage of their father. Luther received a baby Stratocaster for Christmas one year, but at 14 he got an Epiphone Casino that he played for years. He found himself borrowing Gibson Les Pauls all the time and finally purchased his own a few years back. A self-professed guitar hoarder, his current favorite model is an Epiphone Korina Flying V that he plays on the road. "That thing sounds amazing," he exclaims. "I love it, the tone is unbelievable and it's so much fun to play. It's more bouncy and springy than the Les Paul." He also has a Les Paul Standard in cherry sunburst and an EF-500 from the new Epiphone Masterbilt acoustic collection with an L.R. Baggs pickup.

The boys grew up in Memphis and Mississippi, watching their father work with great slide players like Lee Baker and Ry Cooder. Luther was schooled by a seminal blues master, the late Otha Turner, whom he calls a great critic and teacher. "If he wasn't feelin' it, he'd tell you and try and get you goin'," he remembers. "It's all about making a feeling happen." To learn blues, Dickinson says, you just kind of hang out, stomp and jam. Before his passing, Turner played cane fife and sang on the album. The elder Dickinson also took formal lessons with the late Shawn Lane, who played guitar for the album, and Ed Finney, a jazz instructor who plays an old ES-175.

Their first band began as more of a punk outfit, DDT, which later became Gutbucket and then the Allstars when Chew came on board in 1996. Chew grew up singing and playing gospel music and has what Luther calls "this great Southern Baptist uplifting groove in his bass style." Chew, a big man with soul to match, has been playing Tobias basses for years.

The band's songwriting is more collaborative this time around than in the past. Many were arranged during informal jams at soundchecks; Luther admits that they're not big on rehearsing. For the first time, Cody sang lead on four songs, the title track, "One to Grow On," "Otay" and Earl King's "Time for the Sun to Rise." Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis is a friend of Cody's and the band went to Air Studios in London to record his background vocals. Burnside, aka the Red Rooster, wrote and sang lead on "Bad, Bad Pain" - his main axe is a Les Paul Double Cutaway.

Luther wrote the lion's share of the tracks but says he has a funny style. "I wish I could just write, sit down with an acoustic guitar and have everything come together. I just play until I get something good going, and then I record it, because I can't remember it," he confesses with a laugh. "Usually I'm working on some lyrics, and then some music comes about, and it's like, oh, they fit together cool."

They tour 185 days a year on average and take their inspiration from their fans, as any good jam band does. It's a codependent relationship - the fans come to party with them, and they channel the contagious energy back and forth between them as they play, often into the wee hours of the morning.

"We just hope for longevity, man, to be able to keep working and make another record, and, you know, keep the show on the road," Dickinson concludes, as he lets out yet another extravagant yawn.