You get a nickel, I'll get a dime

The first I ever heard of James Luther Dickinson’s music was when Tav Falco covered “Oh How She Dances” on 1986’s PLAY NEW ROSE FOR ME compilation. The song was weird, I liked it. The liner notes said that it was taken from Jim Dickinson’s DIXIE FRIED. I figured it was from story or play so I started looking for books by Jim Dickinson. There aren’t any.

A few weeks after that I was flipping through the used records at Courter Brother Records in Chattanooga. I found one with a cool cover of a guy in a white suit standing on a marble monument reading from a book. It was by James Luther Dickinson. I didn’t make the connection until I flipped the record over and there in the middle of side two was “O How She Dances”. I took the record up to the counter and Bob Courter started telling how great the record was. He said it was somewhere in between Tom Waits and Dr. John. I bought the record anyway.

It is a great record. There’s not much else like it, Tom Waits and Dr. John are close but DIXIE FRIED rocks more than either of them. Dr. John actually plays piano on the record, Eric Clapton adds some guitar.

Jim Dickinson was already a well established session man in 1972. He’s played on more great records than most of us own: Aretha Franklin, Rolling Stones, Sam & Dave, Flamin Groovies, Brook Benton, Tony Joe White, Arlo Guthrie, Little Esther, Lulu, Betty Lavette, Petula Clark and many others. Dickinson’s produced almost as many: Big Star, The Replacements, Mudhoney, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Jason & The Scorchers and the band his two sons started: The North Mississippi All-Stars.

The album was re-issued on CD a few years ago and I believe it is still available. Go find a copy.