Buddy Miller's The Majestic Silver String

Ricercato guitar-project tra canzone country e tradizione da parte di un grande personaggio accompagnato da Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot e Greg Leisz, Julie Miller, Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Anne McCrary e Marc Anthony Thompson (Chocolate Genius). CD + DVD contenente un documentario di ventuno minuti e l’esecuzione dal vivo di “Why Baby Why”.

Oltre ad essere una sorta di “padrino” della canzone d’autore di matrice roots tra country e rock, Buddy Miller, è un grande autore e chitarrista di vaglia. In “Majestic Silver Strings”, per non smentire il titolo di tanto progetto, unisce le proprie forze a quelle di alcuni maestri della chitarra quali Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot e Greg Leisz. I quattro ripercorrono e rivedono, come certifica l’autorevole Buscadero, alcune delle più famose canzoni country, in modo decisamente originale ed innovativo. Un guitar sound ricercatissimo in tutto degno degli strumentisti presenti che amano esprimersi nei più diversi ambiti musicali. La parte vocale non è certo da meno grazie alla presenza di Julie Miller, Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Anne McCrary e Chocolate Genius tra i protagonisti, oltre allo stesso Buddy Miller.

The Majestic Silver Strings album is Buddy’s re-imagination of classic country songs loaded with guitars, atmosphere and attitude. Buddy and the 3 acclaimed guitarists - Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot & Greg Leisz (together they are the Majestic Silver Strings) - push each song into a new cosmos. Guest vocalists include Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Lee Ann Womack, Chocolate Genius and Julie Miller.

Tracklist

Cattle Call (Buddy Miller sings) - No Good Lover (Buddy Miller & Ann McCrary sing) - I Want To Be With You Always (Buddy Miller & Patty Griffin sing) - Barres De La Prison (Marc Ribot sings) - Meds (Lee Ann Womack sings) - Dang Me (Chocolate Genius sings) - Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie (Marc Ribot sings) - That’s The Way Love Goes (Shawn Colvin sings) - Freight Train (Instrumental) - Why I’m Walkin’ (Emmylou Harris sings) - Why Baby Why (Buddy Miller & Marc Ribot sing) - Return To Me (Lee Ann Womack sings) - God’s Wing’ed Horse (Buddy & Julie Miller sing)

The Majestic Silver Strings: Members

Buddy Miller

Buddy, who has spent much of this year on the road leading Robert Plant’s Band of Joy, recently collaborated with both Plant and Patty Griffin to produce two of the current Grammy® nominated albums. (Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy is nominated in the Best Americana Album category while Patty Griffin’s Downtown Church is nominated in the Best Traditional Gospel Album category.) Buddy currently holds the Americana Music Association honor as Instrumentalist of the Year, while two years ago he swept the awards taking home trophies in almost every category including Album of the Year for Written in Chalk, a collaboration with his wife Julie. Written In Chalk, only the second collaboration from the couple, quickly received high marks among the industry's elite critics including 4 stars in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Maverick and Mojo.

Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell is one of the most sought-after guitar voices in contemporary music. His prominence as a composer and bandleader has grown steadily over the past 25 years. He has also contributed to the work of such collaborators as Elvis Costello, Paul Motian, Jim Hall, Ginger Baker, Jack Dejohnette, Ron Carter, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, Buddy Miller, Rickie, Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, and numerous others, including Bono, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Daniel Lanois on the soundtrack for Wim Wenders’ film Million DollarHotel.

Greg Leisz

Greg Leisz is an American guitarist and multi instrumentalist known particularly for his work on lap and pedal steel guitars. A native of Southern California, he began playing guitar in the fertile garage band scene of the early to mid 60's and was soon drawn into the west coast's emerging synthesis of folk, rock, blues, and country music. In the late 80’s/early 90s Greg played on a number of seminal albums by emerging roots artists and singer / songwriters including Jim Lauderdale, Dave Alvin and kd lang. Since then he has had an extremely prolific career as a studio and touring musician playing on hundreds of albums by a wide variety of artists including Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Beck, Allison Krauss and Robert Plant, John Fogerty, Miranda Lambert, Lucinda Williams and Ray Lamontagne. Greg has also collaborated on a number of projects with fellow Majestic Silver Strings member Bill Frisell. In 2010, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement for Instrumentalist Award by the Americana Music Association.

Marc Ribot

Marc Ribot, who the New York Times describes as “a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device,” has released 19 albums under his own name over a 30-year career, exploring everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban son of Arsenio Rodríguez. Rolling Stone points out that “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985's Rain Dogs, and since then he's become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp.” Additional recording credits include Elton John/Leon Russell’s latest The Union, Solomon Burke, John Lurie, Marianne Faithful, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Marisa Monte, Allen Ginsburg, Trey Anastasio, Madeline Peyroux, Patti Scialfa, Sam Phillips, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, and many others. Marc works regularly with Grammy® award winning producer T Bone Burnett and NY composer John Zorn. He has also performed on scores such as "Walk The Line (Mangold)," "The Kids Are All Right," and "The Departed" (Scorcese)."

North Mississippi Allstars - Keys To The Kingdom

Abbiamo più volte celebrato la band dei fratelli Cody e Luther Dickinson e questo loro nuovo cd “Keys To The Kingdom” ci fa capira ancora una volta di piu' la grandezza di questa band. . Il disco arriva dopo la scomparsa del grande padre, maestro ed ispiratore, Jim Dickinson e possiamo affermare tranquillamente che è la prima volta che ci capita di assistere ad un album prodotto per e non prodotto da. Celebrazione della vita dopo la morte, di un personaggio di grande carisma che era un autorità del Memphis blues e della musica nera in generale e delle sue radici. Un’esaltazione del passato attraverso il presente dei fratelli Dickinson e del bassista Chris Chew che in ambito blues e dintorni non ha uguali. Che ci troviamo di fronte a qualcosa di speciale è testimonianoto anche dalla caratura degli ospiti ossia Ry Cooder, Mavis Staples, Spooner Oldham, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Gordie Johnson, Jim Spake, Jack Ashford.

In the beginning, a father passed away and a child was born. Luther and Cody Dickinson lost their father, Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson, only months before Luther became one. Jim had always told them, "You need to be playing music together. You are better together than you will ever be apart." Coincidentally, the Dickinson brothers were not together when Jim passed. At that moment, they were both off on their own, Luther with The Black Crowes and Cody with the Hill Country Revue. So in the spring of 2010, the North Mississippi Allstars reformed and went into the Zebra Ranch, the family’s recording studio where they had spent countless hours together with their dad, to create a record that could help them cope with the loss, and, at the same time, rejoice in his honor. The first line of Jim’s self-written eulogy was, “I refuse to celebrate death." Luther, Cody and Chris Chew took heed and aimed to celebrate life instead; and the songs for the new record, Keys To The Kingdom (Songs of the South), came pouring out of their souls.

"As is our family's tradition, we gathered in our homemade studio and recorded," Luther says. "We carried on as we've been taught and dealt the only way we know, by making music. Our dad used to say that production-in-absentia is the highest form of production. The credits read: ‘Produced for Jim Dickinson.’ Keys To The Kingdom is definitely our finest collaboration."

Very close friends of the family joined the band in fellowship to see NMA through this deepest of moments, among them Mavis Staples, Ry Cooder, Spooner Oldham, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Gordie Johnson and Jack Ashford (Motown Funk Brother tambourine player). All had collaborated with Jim and the boys over the years at one point or another and feel a deep kinship with the Dickinson family to this day.

Keys To The Kingdom is a song cycle, a celebratory declaration of life in the face of death as well as a musical interpretation of the Dickinson family's recent experience with the cycle of life, written and recorded honestly, fast and raw. There are moments of rock 'n roll rebellion and sexified blues, but the heart of the record reflects the journey that traverses through the mirrored gates of life and death.

"It's said that anger is the first stage of grief and that's how the album begins - angry," says Luther. As such, the first song, "This A'Way," kicks in with a boogied-up guitar line and quickly introduces the rallying cry of "I hate to be treated this a'way," soon to be followed by the clattering country punk of "Jumpercable Blues," with the screams of "Hey, hey, well, well, well, all y'all can go straight to hell!" It's them against the world, gathering their gumption and keeping one another strong. The family will stay together and it will grow and carry on with its traditions in tact. This is the battle.

From there, the boys explore varying meditations on mortality, often from the perspective of their father as he is preparing to die. The songs grasp the subject matter with fierce honesty yet never become maudlin. From the Mavis Staples ghost-dance gospel soul of "The Meeting," in which one struts and swaggers confidently through the pearly gates with head held high, to the Replacements meets Big Star-inspired rock of "How I Wish My Train Would Come," which speaks of actually desiring to move beyond life's struggles, to "Hear the Hills," which depicts the acceptance and letting go experience of the final moments of a life well lived and loved, we find the boys looking for meaning and answers as they work through their pain. Spooner Oldham, Jim's favorite piano player, lends a hand on these last two songs. Luther chose Oldham to play the "piano from heaven," and blends it beautifully with a recording of Mississippi bugs conversing on a desolate hot summer night. As the song fades, it sounds like a distant country church house somewhere off in the woods.

Luther explains the inspiration: "When we were little children, we lived in a house on a dirt road in between a juke joint and a lake where local churches held baptismal services. I remember hearing the music come through the woods at night and on Sunday mornings."

The one cover on the record is Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again."

"One night, while in the hospital, dad had the great idea that 'Stuck Inside' could be done as a one-chord hill country blues song," Luther shares. "He couldn't talk so he wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed the idea to me. I promised him then that we would do it."

"'Let It Roll,' 'Ol' Cannonball' and 'Ain't None O' Mine' are some of the most hardcore traditional blues originals NMA have ever laid down on tape," says Luther. The former is a new take on a song he wrote and recorded three days after Jim passed away and originally released on a record called Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy. "Ol' Cannonball is played in the acoustic string band tradition with Alvin Youngblood Hart on vocals and harmonica. "Ain't None O' Mine," drunk on juke-joint, Peavey-amp distortion and reverb, is inspired by Otha Turner's lusty tales of old-time, late-night country courtship and provides a necessary aspect of the cycle of life - sex.

In between these three songs, sits the emotional centerpiece of the record, the ultimate love letter from a son to his lost father, "Ain't No Grave." The song features Jim's old partner in crime Ry Cooder on guitar and is simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting, gut wrenching and empowering. Says Luther, "I woke up one morning on NMA's bus, and the lyrics to 'Ain't No Grave' came to me as fast I could write them. That night, after the show, I picked up a guitar, opened my lyric book and the melody came to me just as easily. The song is brutally honest and heartfelt."

NMA ends the cycle with two somewhat lighter takes on death. "New Orleans Walkin' Dead" is a humorous zombie-rock take on the notion of resurrection, while "Jellyrollin' All Over Heaven" is in the spirit of a New Orleans funeral procession during which the marching band plays uplifting and joyful music on the return parade from the burying ground. Once again, Oldham plays his angelic piano, and the bugs carry the spirit of the Mississippi night as they have for thousands of years and the record fades to black.

Jim always advised in a very no-nonsense way, "Play every note as if it's your last because one of them will be," and that's just what NMA set out to do on Keys to the Kingdom. The results are powerfully played and deeply visceral as the best blues music is - spiritual without being god fearing, heavy without being depressing.

"In the end," Luther says, "We recorded our best country blues and Mississippi rock 'n roll record yet -- as if our lives depended on it." Ten years after the release of their debut album, Shake Hands with Shorty, Chew sums it up: "This is grown folks music."

On Keys to the Kingdom, some children are born and others become adults; naïve idealism gets squashed by stark realism, yet there is no choice but to move on, and so they do -- the quest for joy, celebration and truth palpable in every note of the mighty NMA sound.



THE BAND

The North Mississippi Allstars were founded in 1996; a product of a special time for modern Mississippi country blues. RL Burnside, Jr. Kimbrough, Otha Turner and their musical families were at their peak; making classic records and touring the world. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson soaked up the music of their father, Jim Dickinson, and absorbed the North Mississippi Blues legacy while playing and shaking it down at the juke joints with their blues ancestors. Luther (guitar and vocals) and Cody (drums and vocals) joined up with bassist Chris Chew to form the core of their own band, The North Mississippi Allstars. Through the filter of generations of Mississippi Blues men, the Allstars pioneered their own blues-infused rock and roll.

After touring as an opening act for a variety of artists and honing their chops as a unit, the North Mississippi Allstars issued their debut album, Shake Hands With Shorty in the spring of 2000. Their debut proved to be a success and earned them a Grammy nomination for “Best Contemporary Blues Album”. Bringing their hill country blues-infused rock & roll to stages all over the country and the world (including multiple tours in Europe and Asia), the Allstars quickly gained a loyal fan base. The band gained additional popularity for their work in the Gospel-Blues band The Word, which also featured John Medeski and Pedal Steel player Robert Randolph. By 2005 the North Mississippi Allstars’ had released 4 studio records, 3 of which were Grammy nominated and earned the reputation as one of the most intriguing acts to emerge from the loam of Southern blues and roots rock.

The band released Hernando in early 2008, which represented a return to the blues-rock roots the band started with more than a decade ago. It was also the first release on the trio’s own label, Songs of the South Records. In January 2009, the band finished their retrospective record entitled ‘Do It Like We Used To Do’. The 2 CD/1 DVD package features two discs of music that chronologically highlight the band’s live performances over their first twelve years together, and also includes a full-length documentary DVD on the history of the band. The documentary captures rare live footage, interviews with the guys, and tells the story of a classic American band.