The Allstars' first release, Shake Hands With Shorty, was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Contemporary Blues Album". Since then, 51 Phantom and Electric Blue Watermelon have received nominations in that same category. The group also won a Blues Music Award for "Best New Artist Debut" in 2001.
The band has been the backing band for John Hiatt, including appearing on the album "Master of Disaster".
All the members of the Allstars have also teamed up with Robert Randolph and John Medeski to form The Word.
In November 2007, Luther Dickinson joined The Black Crowes as lead guitarist, and has appeared on their albums Warpaint (2008), Before the Frost...Until the Freeze (2009) and Croweology (2010). Luther Dickinson currently devotes his time to both the Black Crowes and the North Mississippi Allstars. Cody Dickinson has also started a side project, Hill Country Revue, featuring Daniel Coburn, Kirk Smithhart, Doc Samba and Ed Cleveland. They are sometimes joined by Luther Dickinson and members of the Burnside family. They have released two albums, Make A Move (2009) and Zebra Ranch (2010),
The mid-90s were a special time for modern Mississippi country blues. RL Burnside, Jr. Kimbrough, Otha Turner and their musical families were at their peak; touring the world, making classic records and doing the all-night boogie at Jr's Juke Joint and Otha's BBQ Goat picnics -- the music and the culture rich as the black Mississippi dirt. 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 and continue to do so.
The band hit the road with the release of their first record, Shake Hands With Shorty, Grammy-nominated 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, and to date have released six full-length albums. The bands’s third record, Phantom Record also received a Grammy nod.
Electric Blue Watermelon, their third album to receive a Grammy nomination, embodies the Allstars’ own sound. It reflects the band’s old times and lives growing up in their musical community in North Mississippi. “The record holds to the folk tradition of oral history,” as Luther Dickinson puts it. “Electric Blue Watermelon celebrates the lives and legends of men who are folk heroes in my community. If the traditions are passed down and kept alive, they can’t help but mutate and change.” Electric Blue Watermelon is certainly a departure from the blues tradition, but it is a record that reaches in the future and back into the past. It’s loud psychedelic southern folk rock blues.
Come Go With Me
North Mississippi Allstars Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Left (two fine children) lord ain't none are mine.
No Lordy. None are mine. None are mine.
Left (two fine children), none are mine. None are mine.
Left yah in the doorway, screaming and crying.
Stay 'round here for to weep and moan
Come go with me I'll love you all night long
I love you all night long. All night long.
Come go with me I'll love yah all night long
Stay 'round here to weep and moan.
Refuse me woman, that would be your loss
Stick to yah closer than Jesus to the cross
Than Jesus, to the cross. To the cross.
Closer than Jesus, to the cross.
Refuse me woman, that would be your loss.
(Musical Break)
Your heart sank like a rock cast out in the sea
Can't put your faith in a man like me
Not in a, man like me. Man like me.
Put your faith in a man like me.
Your heart sank like a rock out in the sea.
Come go with me I'll turn your money green.
Show you things, girl, you ain't never seen.
No you ain't never seen. Never seen.
(Rock a fellow, never seen.)
Come go with me I'll turn your money green.
"Come Go With Me" is a classic blues and country mash-up by the North Mississippi Allstars, a traditional Southern blues group formed in 1996 in Hernando, Mississippi. The song, which is their signature tune, is both seductive and heartbreaking. The first verse has a man telling a woman he intends to leave her no matter how much she screams and cries. He then states that the "fine children" she is crying over are not his, even though it is unclear whether he fathered the children or not. The second verse, sung after a musical break, has the man asking the woman to come with him instead of crying and weeping all around. He will love her all night long, and it will be her loss if she refuses. The last verse is about how the woman's heart sank when she realized he is not a reliable man, and he is telling her that his tricks could make her money and turn it green.
The song is characterized by raw, unpolished lyrics, overdriven electric slide guitar, and a pounding beat. The title track of the album, it showcases the range of influences that the North Mississippi Allstars draw upon, from classic delta blues to psychedelic rock. In addition to their Mississippi roots, the song borrows heavily from the style of Robert Johnson, a pioneer of early electric blues music. The arrangement is purely instrumental, but the musical break sections add some excitement and variation to the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Left yah in the doorway screaming and crying
I abandoned you while you were begging and crying for me not to leave.
Left (two fine children) lord ain't none are mine.
I have left behind my two children and I am not their father.
No Lordy. None are mine. None are mine.
I am repeating that I am not the father of the two children I left behind.
Left (two fine children), none are mine. None are mine.
I am repeating that I left behind two children who are not mine.
Stay 'round here for to weep and moan
There is no point in staying here to grieve and complain.
Come go with me I'll love you all night long
I am inviting you to join me and I will show you how much I love you all night long.
I love you all night long. All night long.
I am repeating that I will show you my love for the entire night.
Come go with me I'll love yah all night long
I am inviting you to leave with me and I will love you all night long.
Refuse me woman, that would be your loss
If you reject me, you will be the one who loses out.
Stick to yah closer than Jesus to the cross
I will stay close to you, faithfully, like Jesus did to the cross.
Than Jesus, to the cross. To the cross.
I am emphasizing how closely I will stay with you, like Jesus to the cross.
Closer than Jesus, to the cross.
I will stay closer to you than Jesus did to the cross.
Your heart sank like a rock cast out in the sea
You felt lost and hopeless, like a rock sinking in the sea.
Can't put your faith in a man like me
You can't trust me or have faith in me.
Not in a, man like me. Man like me.
I am repeating that you can't trust a man like me.
Put your faith in a man like me.
I am urging you to put your faith in me.
Come go with me I'll turn your money green.
I will offer you riches and make your money multiply.
Show you things, girl, you ain't never seen.
I will show you things that you have never seen before, girl.
No you ain't never seen. Never seen.
I am repeating that you have never seen these things before in your life.
(Rock a fellow, never seen.)
This line is added as a musical element to the repetition of the previous line.
Contributed by Ella H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.