SOUTH MEMPHIS STRING BAND
''HOME SWEET HOME''
JANUARY 19 2010
43:52
1/Jesse James
Traditional/4:22
2/Deep Blue Sea
Traditional/2:43
3/Old Hen
Traditional/3:23
4/Worry 'Bout Your Own Backyard
James H. Mathis/2:51
5/Things Is 'Bout Coming My Way
Traditional/3:58
6/Let Your Light Shine On Me
Blind Willie Johnson/3:41
7/The Carrier Line
Traditional/5:01
8/Bloody Bill Anderson
G.E. Hart/4:31
9/Eighteen Hammers
Jonny Lee Moore / Traditional/2:00
10/Bootlegger's Blues
Mississippi Sheiks/4:39
11/Dixie Darling
A.P. Carter/2:48
12/Home Sweet Home
Traditional/3:55
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
With their 2010 debut album, Home Sweet Home, the members of the South Memphis String Band -- Luther Dickinson, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Jimbo Mathus -- have succeeded in producing a recording that sounds like it could have been made at least 80 years earlier. The trio members, each of whom has had other affiliations and recording projects, play acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, Dobro, and other string instruments, along with the occasional harmonica and kazoo, plus plenty of heavy foot-tapping for percussion, as they make their way through a series of songs credited to "Traditional" as songwriter (as well as occasional covers and originals), trading off roughly sung vocals on matters of rural concern including livestock, bootlegging, and other criminal activity. The murder of outlaw Jesse James by "that dirty little coward" Robert Ford leads things off, and other selections include "Eighteen Hammers," which sounds like it would work fine for a chain gang on a Southern highway, and the self-descriptive "Bootlegger's Blues," borrowed from the repertoire of the Mississippi Sheiks. Dickinson, Hart, and Mathus give the impression they have just gotten together in a studio to trade tunes and then released the first-take results, including count-ins and stray spoken remarks, with the musical arrangements sounding as if they were invented on the spot. It's a devoted act of preservation to seem this spontaneous.
BIOGRAPHY
By William Ruhlmann
Contemporary blues group the South Memphis String Band consist of Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and the Black Crowes, Grammy-winner Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Their debut album, Home Sweet Home, featuring songs by Blind Willie Johnson, Jonny Lee Moore, the Mississippi Sheiks, and A.P. Carter, as well as originals, was released by Memphis International Records on January 19, 2010.
''HOME SWEET HOME''
JANUARY 19 2010
43:52
1/Jesse James
Traditional/4:22
2/Deep Blue Sea
Traditional/2:43
3/Old Hen
Traditional/3:23
4/Worry 'Bout Your Own Backyard
James H. Mathis/2:51
5/Things Is 'Bout Coming My Way
Traditional/3:58
6/Let Your Light Shine On Me
Blind Willie Johnson/3:41
7/The Carrier Line
Traditional/5:01
8/Bloody Bill Anderson
G.E. Hart/4:31
9/Eighteen Hammers
Jonny Lee Moore / Traditional/2:00
10/Bootlegger's Blues
Mississippi Sheiks/4:39
11/Dixie Darling
A.P. Carter/2:48
12/Home Sweet Home
Traditional/3:55
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
With their 2010 debut album, Home Sweet Home, the members of the South Memphis String Band -- Luther Dickinson, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Jimbo Mathus -- have succeeded in producing a recording that sounds like it could have been made at least 80 years earlier. The trio members, each of whom has had other affiliations and recording projects, play acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, Dobro, and other string instruments, along with the occasional harmonica and kazoo, plus plenty of heavy foot-tapping for percussion, as they make their way through a series of songs credited to "Traditional" as songwriter (as well as occasional covers and originals), trading off roughly sung vocals on matters of rural concern including livestock, bootlegging, and other criminal activity. The murder of outlaw Jesse James by "that dirty little coward" Robert Ford leads things off, and other selections include "Eighteen Hammers," which sounds like it would work fine for a chain gang on a Southern highway, and the self-descriptive "Bootlegger's Blues," borrowed from the repertoire of the Mississippi Sheiks. Dickinson, Hart, and Mathus give the impression they have just gotten together in a studio to trade tunes and then released the first-take results, including count-ins and stray spoken remarks, with the musical arrangements sounding as if they were invented on the spot. It's a devoted act of preservation to seem this spontaneous.
BIOGRAPHY
By William Ruhlmann
Contemporary blues group the South Memphis String Band consist of Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and the Black Crowes, Grammy-winner Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Their debut album, Home Sweet Home, featuring songs by Blind Willie Johnson, Jonny Lee Moore, the Mississippi Sheiks, and A.P. Carter, as well as originals, was released by Memphis International Records on January 19, 2010.
