If 2002′s Free Beer Tomorrow, Jim Dickinson’s “follow-up” to his 1971 solo debut Dixie Fried, sounded like a well-conceived showcase for his favorite mostly-obscure songs, this one sounds more like one man’s quickly-tossed-off, romping, stomping homage to southern music.
Not that he hasn’t, in the process, unearthed some long-lost gems. Collin Wade Monk’s aching, slo-burn “Violin Bums” sounds like something Tom Waits wishes he’d written, while “White Silver Sands” (once the theme song of ’60s southern comedian Brother Dave Gardner) is weird and witty cocktail-lounge jazz-bop.
But he seems especially happy bellowing his way through the likes of Terry Fell’s warhorse “Truck Driving Man” or Lightning Slim’s “Rooster Blues”. And his bloozy reading of “Love Bone”, a 1969 hit for Johnny Taylor, is delivered with an irresistible wink and smile that makes the original sound kinda chaste.
With a band anchored by his sons Cody and Luther of the North Mississippi All Stars, this veteran artist/producer has never sounded looser on record, which is saying a lot after the drunken carnival sound of Free Beer. He makes pure roots music that’s not purist, music that breathes, with lots of open spaces; plays roadhouse piano that bridges black and white; and is arguably the last man alive who knows how to record a sax so it sounds like a sex toy.
The rockers are hell-bent and the slow ones are heaven-sent. He’s serious and he’s fun and he does it from the heart. All this and a lolling/lulling version of “Samba De Orfeo” from Black Orpheus, too.
