eMusic February
My e-Music downloads the past month …
* Hill Country Revue: Live at Bonnaroo by North Mississippi Allstars. This live set from the 2004 festival in Tennessee is a gathering of the Dickinson (Luther, Cody and daddy Jim) and the Burnside (R.L., his sons Garry and Duwayne, and his grandson Cody) families plus some friends like Othar Turner’s Rising Star Fife & Drum Band (featuring the grandchildren of the late fife master), Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and others.
What they produced was a magic mix of blues, Southern rock and some Dixie-fried psychedelia. “Psychedelic Sex Machine” is just loads of fun. But Jim Dickinson’s version of “Down in Mississippi” (written by J.B. Lenoir, but a signature song of the elder Dickinson) might be the mightiest version he ever did.
This collection of 20 songs from 1950 to 1956 makes you realize what Waylon was talking about. You can hear Hank’s influence in songs like “Trademark” (which was co-written by Porter Wagoner) and “Are You Teasing Me” (a Louvin Brothers song). Meanwhile songs like “Go Boy Go” and “Back Up Buddy” (“back up, buddy, don’t you come any closer/I know you want her, but the answer is `No, sir’ …”) sound as if they were recorded right on the border of honky tonk and rockabilly.
Plus:
* Most of The Sheik Said Shake by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers. Allright! Voodoo Rhythm last month quietly added a bunch of albums to eMusic including some relatively new ones (The Pussywarmers, The Movie Star Junkies and the latest from King Automatic and The Guilty Hearts).
Still, it’s irresistible. I’ll definitely pick up the rest of this album when my account refreshes next week.
* The remaining four tracks from tracks from No Requests Tonight by The Devil Dogs, which I didn’t get last month. It’s good and rocking, though my favorite track on the album still is the cover of Sonny Bono’s “Laugh at Me.”