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.
Teasin' Brown
North Mississippi Allstars Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Make it long and easy right behind your door
please baby, please baby, please baby, please baby
Give me a little more time
Cause I jus' wanna get harry with that teasin brown of mine, teasin brown of mine
I me mine
I just wanna get harry with that teasin brown of mine, teasin brown of mine
I feel lonesome, you know what you promised me
please baby, please baby, please baby, please baby
Give me a little more time
Cause I jus' wanna get harry with that teasin brown of mine, teasin brown of mine
I me mine
I just wanna get harry with that teasin brown of mine, teasin brown of mine
I got something to tell you just before I go
Lord, my home ain't here, it's further up the road
I feel like rumblin, got no place to go
Baby my home ain't here, it's somewhars up the road
please baby, please baby, please baby, please baby
Give me a little more time
Cause I jus' wanna get harry with that teasin brown of mine, teasin brown of mine
I me mine
I Just wanna get harry with that teasin brown, teasin brown of mine
(C'mon baby, Kenny Brown got his long johns on
Y'all don't know nuthin' 'bout that!)
The lyrics of North Mississippi Allstars' song Teasin' Brown revolves around a man's longing for a woman, specifically her sensual qualities that drive him wild. The individual is desperately pleading and begging for more time to spend with this woman because he wants to get lost in her charm and energy. He wishes to lay down with her, make love, and explore the feelings they have together. The song's lyrics suggest that the woman who he is longing for, who he calls "Teasin Brown," has promised him something, and he is holding her to that promise. He reminds her of that pledge and pleads with her, "please baby, please baby, please baby."
The final stanza of the song brings up the idea that the man feels like he doesn't belong where he is currently. He talks about how his home is "somewhars up the road" and that he is just passing through. Perhaps he wants to find a place where he feels more comfortable, or maybe he wants to take the woman he is talking about and go on a journey with her. The song's overall tone is that of blues music, with the individual expressing his heart's desire through simple but moving lyrics, that just like the blues themselves, seem to carry with them the weight of life's struggle.
Line by Line Meaning
We'll make it down on the floor
We will move to the dance floor and enjoy each other's company.
Make it long and easy right behind your door
We will take our time and enjoy each other's intimate moments right behind your closed door.
please baby, please baby, please baby, please baby
I am begging you to indulge in my desires.
Give me a little more time
I need more time to fulfill my needs and wants.
Cause I jus' wanna get harry with that teasin brown of mine, teasin brown of mine
I me mine
I just wanna get harry with that teasin brown of mine, teasin brown of mine
I just want to get intimate with my partner who brings me pleasure, my teasin’ brown.
Sun goin' down, you know what you promised me
The day is coming to an end, and you made a promise to me.
I feel lonesome, you know what you promised me
I am feeling lonely and unfulfilled of what you promised me.
I got something to tell you just before I go
I have something important to say to you before I have to leave.
Lord, my home ain't here, it's further up the road
My true home is elsewhere, and I need to find it.
I feel like rumblin, got no place to go
Baby my home ain't here, it's somewhars up the road
I feel restless and in search of something more, and my true home is out there somewhere.
C'mon baby, Kenny Brown got his long johns on
Y'all don't know nuthin' 'bout that!
Just enjoying the moment and embracing the experience in a playful manner.
Contributed by Henry H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.