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.
Hear The Hills
North Mississippi Allstars Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I hear the wind blowin way on top of the hill
Down in the valley, everything is still
I hear the wind blowin way on top of the hill
Climb to the top of the tallest tree
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Climb to the top of the tallest tree
I wanna feel the way it sounds
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down
Set me free gravity bound
Set me free gravity bound
Try to fly as high, I'm shackled to the ground
Set me free gravity bound
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Don't bury me in this cursed ground
Don't bury me in this cursed ground
When I die let me fly
I'm nothing but a sound
Don't bury me in this cursed ground
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
The North Mississippi Allstars’ “Mean Ol’ Wind Died Down” is a blues song with enigmatic lyrics that leave room for personal interpretation. The song starts by painting a picture of the wind blowing on top of a hill, while everything remains still in the valley. The singer then tells us about his desire to climb the tallest tree and feel what the wind sounds like. He also wants to be set free from gravity-bound shackles, trying to fly as high as possible. The chorus then comes in, with the singer reiterating that the wind has died down, and we get a sense of relief and freedom.
The second verse of the song has the singer asking not to be buried in a cursed ground when he dies. He asks to be set free and allowed to fly, as sound. The song then ends with a repetition of the chorus, driving the message that the wind has died down home. The lyrics can take on many interpretations, and it is not easy to grasp the song's overall meaning. Some might see the theme of freedom and hanging on to a hope that someday one might be able to break free from the constraints of life, while others read it as an acceptance of the inevitable end of something worldly.
Line by Line Meaning
Hear the wind blowin way on top of the hill
The wind is blowing loudly on the top of the hill.
I hear the wind blowin way on top of the hill
The singer can hear the wind blowing loudly on top of the hill.
Down in the valley, everything is still
The valley is quiet without any wind blowing through it.
Climb to the top of the tallest tree
The artist wants to climb to the top of the tallest tree.
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
The wind has stopped blowing.
I wanna feel the way it sounds
The singer wants to feel what the wind would feel like if it were still blowing.
Set me free gravity bound
The singer wants to be freed from the constraints of gravity.
Try to fly as high, I'm shackled to the ground
The artist feels tied down to the ground and cannot fly.
Don't bury me in this cursed ground
When the artist dies, they do not want to be buried in the ground.
When I die let me fly
The artist wants to be able to fly when they die.
I'm nothing but a sound
The singer feels insignificant compared to the wind.
Mean ol' wind died down, mean ol' wind died down
The wind has stopped blowing.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Semliot
4:13 - 6:03
Some of the most soul-touching music I've ever heard. Seriously, this jam gives me chills.
Richard Last
LOVE these guys!! Can't wait for album and tour. This is heart felt stuff, glad there is a band out there like this among so many crappy ones. God bless NMA!!!
damon trudeau
great song guys...lookin' forward to the album.
Meiga na Lúa
looooooooooooove it!!!
chipman5544
Definitely a tribute to Jim Dickinson. Sounds like to me Luther is continuing in maturing as a songwriter, and his playing is always going to be top notch, no doubt.
Z G
Still awesome
Giuliano Aloisi
great song band trio Wonderfull
boii thicc
I came here by accedent and i'm glad i did