Track Listing

1. Shake 'Em on Down
2. Po Black Maddie/Skinny Woman/Po Black Maddie
3. Jumper on the Line
4. Bad Bad Pain
5. Down in Mississippi
6. Never in All My Days
7. Boomer's Story
8. Psychedelic Sex Machine
9. Shimmy She Wobble/Station Blues
10. Friend of Mine
11. Be So Glad
12. Snake Drive
13. Goin' Home, Pt. 2
14. Going Home South

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24115 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.com
The stage of Tennessee jam band festival Bonnaroo is an unlikely setting for the year's most important blues recording, but young firebrands North Mississippi Allstars pulled off a creative coup in June of 2004 with their Hill Country Revue. The concert teamed patriarch R.L. Burnside and his guitarist and rapper sons, the late Othar Turner's fife and drum band, the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson, and eccentric producer-pianist Jim Dickinson, the father of Allstars Luther and Cody Dickinson, with the wiry trio. The historic results handily blend all the racial, geographic, and cultural elements of the genre with adventurous musicality. Burnside is present more for his inspiration than his musical contribution. But his sons carry on the tradition while pushing its borders into hip-hop and six-string psychedelia. If there’s a star here, though, it's guitarist Luther Dickinson, who playfully quotes Duane Allman, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and the elder Burnside, and then adds a level of tonal and textural exploration to his performance that makes him a one-man defibrillator for the genre--insurance that the heart of the blues will keep pumping into the future. --Ted Drozdowski

Customer Reviews

Can I give this one 6 stars?
Holy Schiznit, this CD kicks tail from start to finish! These fellas "get it". They understand what makes for great Roots-Rock. Heavy on the percussion...heavy on the bass...heavy on the "nasty" fuzzed-out slide guitar of Luther Dickinson. This group grabs onto a funky 4 beat groove, and they don't just play it...they wring it out, and make it touch your soul. At times the sound reminds me of ABB. At other points it reminds me of J. Geils Band. But make no mistake, these guys are no copycats. This is Blues-Rock for the new century. They even blend in a little hip-hop and make it sound good (never thought I'd say that). Best CD I've bought since I don't know when...and I've bought plenty. Buy it today...thank me later!

...well, well, well...
Well, well, well. This album is what music is all about. The love and energy, the friendship, and southern hospitality make this Hill Country Revue just about the best I've ever heard. I can't stop playing it. I've had it about two weeks now, and I play it at least twice a day. I haven't done that since I was a teenager and only had a couple of albums. This thing just starts out hot. I love the R. L. Burnside dialog with the crowd while the band plays. It's a family community thing. Everybody shares and contributes. This is not like the studio stuff, this is pure magic. I hate rap music. I don't know exactly why, but I hate rap music. Cody Burnside does a couple of tunes with rap lyrics that are just great, I love rap music, if it's Hill Country Revue. I'm just a Yankee from Bean Town, and my family is not very close, so it's great for me to see this collection of friends and family come together as one big extended family. There are so many people on the stage you'd think they'd need traffic cops to figure out whose turn it is do what, but everybody gets a chance to shine and share. Yeah that Po Black Maddie>Skinny Women>Po Black Maddie is pretty hot. The Down in Mississippi with Jim Dickenson is a down and dirty throat rasping raw blues with blistering nasty guitar, but now the album is pure hot. It just keeps building up momentum. Never in All My Days is one of the highpoints of the album-Well, Well, Well. Man that bass is just so hard hitting. If you be a bass fan, you gotta try this. Chris Robinson's vocals on Boomer's Story are fantastic, he just blew me away, and I'm more of an instrumental fan, but his voice, and the back up are kinda like an instrument. It's kinda mythical or mystical, or maybe I'm getting hysterical. Wait `til you hear the washboard on Psychedelic Sex Machine, it's like Hendrix on washboard. I've never heard anything like it, and R. L. in the background giving encouragement. Man what a cut. What a surprise the Rising Star Drum Corps is. These cats just blow me away. They cut loose on the Shimmy She Wobble>Station Blues. When these guys get to Be So Glad, Cody does some rap vocals that comes out great with the hill country rock. It's also a bottom end rhythm fest. Good drums, screeching lead, heart pounding base, and a mix of vocals that makes me feel good. This gives me goose bumps-can't get enough. Snake Drive is just more of the same with a relentless rhythm and great vocals and some more well, well, well. Goin' Home Part Two just keep the momentum going. I feel like these guys are going to take off, but this is where they start winding down to say good-bye. All in all, this is 78 minutes of celebration on one disc. I heard these guys put on some pretty long concerts. I'd love to see a big four disc set like Gov't Mule's A little Help from Our Friends.

when you're ready to turn it up...
I've seen the Allstars three times now and this CD really captures their spirit and their strength - shake yer booty and let it all hang out! A warning though, this is the blues, so if you're looking for straight ahead pop/rock, look elsewhere.

I'd give it a 5, but truthfully not all the tracks are of 5 star quality. Personally, I prefer RL Burside's vocals to any of the band's, so those tracks are my favourites.

If you're in the mood to crank the volume and shake, then this CD will absolutely not disappoint.

Yogi