North Mississippi Allstars - Do It Like We Used To Do (2009)

                                                          North Mississippi Allstars
 The North Mississippi Allstars' youth belies its history, as documented on Do It Like We Used to Do. Over the course of two CDs and a DVD featuring archival material, interviews and concert footage, the band displays reverence for the music it plays, without ever taking itself too seriously.
Reasonably priced in skeletal packaging with colorful and information-laden graphics simulating a scrapbook, this three-disc set ostensibly covers the first twelve years of NMA history, from 1996 to 2008. Yet this anthology spans more than just a story of a band; it's a musical tradition, of which guitarist/vocalist Luther Dickinson, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Cody Dickinson and bassist Chris Chew are a part.

The antique sound quality on much of the first disc suits the earthy likes of Fred McDowell's chain-gang song, "I'm in Jail." The NMA's moniker takes on a whole new meaning during the course of this compilation, as the core trio is joined in turn by various instrumentalists and accompanists, including full-fledged units like Otha Turner's Fife and Drum band and famed musician/producer Jim Dickinson (Rolling Stones, Big Star, Ry Cooder, The Replacements), father of the NMA siblings.

Recordings sites range from the intimate likes of New York's Beacon Theatre in 2006, where the band draws upon Jimi Hendrix in "Hear My Train A-Comin,'" to the more expansive eclectic likes of Tennessee's 2004 Bonnaroo Music Festival, where the Hill Country Revue delves deeper into the roots of this music with the aid of musicians R.L. Boyce and Duwayne Burnside.

Luther Dickinson oversaw this exhaustive compilation, and he's both sufficiently objective and astute enough to include the acoustic likes of "Goin' Home ML," a lilting sing-song piece offset by the hammering riff of "Keep the Devil Down." Ever so slight overlap comes in the form of selections from the band's studio release, Hernando (Songs of the South, 2008), such as "I Would Love to Be a Hippy," and "Mizzip," which was recorded at The Fox Theater in Boulder, Colorado for the double-CD concert recording Boulderado (Songs of the South, 2009). Yet none of the anthologized material becomes redundant in this context.


Credits:

Chris Chew - Bass, Vocals   
Cody Dickinson - Drums, Keyboards, Vocals   
Luther Dickinson - Guitar, Vocals   
Duwayne Burnside - Guitar Vocals  
R.L. Boyce - Guitar, Vocals   
Jim Dickinson - Vocals, Keyboards   
Robert Randolph - Pedal Steel Guitar   

Trackklist:

CD 01

01. Someday Baby 03:22
02. I'm In Jail 03:34
03. 18 Hammers 05:30
04. Freedom Highway 04:22
05. Shimmy Duo 04:44
06. Goin' Down South 06:21
07. 61 Highway 03:56
08. Hey Hey Baby (What's Wrong With You) 05:09
09. RL's Endless Boogie 03:08
10. Crazy 'Bout U 03:41
11. Up Over Yonder 03:32
12. Sugartown 03:22
13. Be So Glad 06:14
14. Po Black Maddie / Skinny Woman 02:35
15. Jumper On The Line 05:06

CD 02

01. Mississippi Bollweevil 02:38
02. Down In Mississippi 06:23
03. Got My Mojo Workin' 04:20
04. Hear My Train A'Comin' 05:37
05. The Meeting 04:16
06. Goin Home ML 05:04
07. Jr / Stay All Night / Lord Have Mercy / Stay All Night 11:46
08. Hippy 07:19
09. Mizzip 03:04
10. Keep The Devil Down 04:00
11. Horseshoe 08:14
12. Glory, Glory 04:02