Hot on the heels of
Fishing with Charlie and Other Selected Readings
, his deeply mystical series of
spoken word
readings of various heroes of vernacular culture, comes
Jim Dickinson
the hoodoo music man on
Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger
. This is a fitting part two, given the immediacy and raw
soul
in music he covers. (Yep, not an original in the bunch -- thank you Jesus, because, as
Tav Falco
says, "there's too many of them already.") Here are forgotten, truth-telling songs written in the
rock
,
country
blues
gospel
and even
samba
vernaculars -- the beat-conscious languages of people who have often been excluded from the discussion, either by governments, race, class, or record companies -- by non-legends who should be (and are, among their small aesthetic constituencies) like
Bob Frank
Terry Fell
Jim Isbell
Shari Paulus
J. Mathus
Eddie Hinton
Collin Wade Monk
Greg Spradlin
Chuck Prophet
Bill Nettles
Luiz Bonfa
, and a few others. This is shack-shakin' music, full of deep
R&B
with
Southern soul
overtones (
"Hadacol Boogie"
and
"Can't Beat the Kid, Pt. 2"
),
boogie (
"Rooster Blues"
"Truck Drivin' Man"
), honky tonk balladry (
"Violin Bums"
"Somewhere Down the Road"
), and Brazilian ghetto
(
"Samba de Orfeo"
).
Dickinson
, who plays keyboards and sings, is accompanied by drumming son
Cody
and guitar-slinging son
Luther
(with a bit of help from
Alvin Youngblood Hart
on both
"Love Bone"
), acoustic bassist
Amy LaVere
Tommy Burroughs
on violin,
Mark Sallings
on harmonica,
Jim Spake
on baritone sax, and
Jimmy Davis
Reba Russell
on backing vocals. Fans of the original
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
will go nuts for this, as will fans of roots music done with excellence (and a certain irreverence for pristine studio procedure), and lovers of cheap beer and whiskey. Actually, anyone drawn to what is truly and gloriously vulgar in working-class culture and who loves music will celebrate this as a classic -- in much the same way we hear the great records of
Hinton
Jerry Lee Lewis
, and even
himself (
Dixie Fried
). Amazing. ~ Thom Jurek