Artist: James Luther Dickinson Title Of Album: Dixie Fried Year Of Release: 1972/2016 Label: Future Days Country: US Genre: Roots 'n' roll swamp blues folk psych rock Audio codec: FLAC (*.flac) Rip type: tracks+covers The late James Luther Dickinson was one of American music’s most elusive, intriguing musicians and producers. Part of the unpredictable Beale Street crowd from Memphis, Tennessee, his résumé reads like a free-styling, improvised narrative of American country, blues, folk, soul and rock. A limber, flexible player, he’s on Aretha Franklin’s Spirit In The Dark, The Flamin’ Groovies’ Teenage Head, and great sets from Jerry Jeff Walker and Ronnie Hawkins, among others: he also played piano for The Rolling Stones, on “Wild Horses”. Later in his career, Dickinson was a benign presence on albums by Bob Dylan, Tav Falco, Meat Puppets, Mudhoney, Primal Scream and Spiritualized. His production legend, however, rests on Big Star’s dissolute classic, Third/Sister Lovers. Listening to Dickinson’s first solo album, Dixie Fried, recorded a couple of years before the Big Star set, you can start to hear how things ended up the way they did: while Dixie Fried is more coherent, there are still some seriously odd things going on. Like his eventual collaborator Alex Chilton, Dickinson takes liberties with songs, pulling them apart like taffy while scrawling graffiti over the musical backbone provided by a motley crew of players, including Mac Rebennack (aka Dr John), Memphis legend Sid Selvidge, and members of Dickinson’s session group, The Dixie Flyers. Dickinson’s version of Dylan’s protest song, “John Brown”, is a good example: low-slung and sprawling, his bolshy, colloquial vocal ties itself in knots over a rhythm section playing through fug and mud, the sax and slide tangling together as Terry Manning’s Moog dials in electronics seemingly from an entirely other recording session. Songs like this, the warped blues clatter of “O How She Dances” and the drunken, see-sawing bluff of “Casey Jones (On The Road Again)” are the heart of Dixie Fried, balanced as they are by more immediately straightforward performances, like the bawdy roar of the opening “Wine”, or the gospelised holler of the title cut, written by Carl Perkins. Throughout, Dickinson’s deeply invested in animating revenants, but something always goes awry as the past creeps up to mug the present: Dixie Fried is an album full of mutant ghosts. There’s some kind of manic juju in the air through this set of songs – it’s hard to put your finger on it exactly, but it has the same reckless, careening energy of later, more sainted Dickinson productions like Chilton’s 1979 solo set, Like Flies On Sherbert. Unlike the proto-punk deconstruction of rock that took place on Chilton’s solo masterpiece, though, with Dixie Fried, Dickinson’s extending the form by mangling it, lovingly, confusingly, with good times in mind. Tracks 1. Wine (Billy Joe Shine, David Swartz, Gene Haufler, Jack Allday, Mario Daboub) - 3:28 2. The Strength Of Love (John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins) - 3:51 3. Louise (Paul Siebel) - 3:10 4. John Brown (Bob Dylan) - 6:31 5. Dixie Fried (Carl Perkins, Howard Griffen) - 2:24 6. The Judgement (James Luther Dickinson, Mike Utley) - 4:08 7. O How She Dances (Traditional) - 3:15 8. Wild Bill Jones (Bob Frank) - 4:13 9. Casey Jones (On The Road Again) (Furry Lewis) - 6:36 Bonus Tracks: 10.If I Had My Way (Traditional) - 3:10 11.The Lady From Baltimore (Tim Hardin) - 3:23 12.Clap Your Hands (Jim Dickinson) - 2:04 13.Old Time Used To Be (Christmas Tree) (Jim Dickinson) - 5:25 14.Relax Your Mind (Jim Dickinson) - 3:14 15.Mama Tried (Merle Haggard) - 3:44 16.Sanctified (Jim Dickinson, Bob McDill) - 2:47 Personnel: Jim Dickinson - Lead Vocals, Piano, Guitar Charlie Lawing - Alto Saxophone Brenda Kay Patterson, Ginger Holiday, Jeannie Greene, Mary Holiday, Mary Lindsay Dickinson - Backing Vocals Joe Gaston, Tommy McClure - Bass Sammy Lee Creason - Drums Jack Pennington - Fiddle Charlie Freeman, Edward La Paglia, Gimmer Nicholson, Lee Baker, Mike Ladd - Guitar Sid Selvidge - Guitar, Piano Mike Utley - Keyboards Ken Woodley - Keyboards, Bass Jeff Newman - Pedal Steel Guitar Dr. John, The Night Tripper - Piano Terry Manning - Vocals, Guitar, Electric Piano Jimmy Crosthwait - Washboard