Onward & Upward

Album Review

Three days after the death of legendary musician and producer Jim Dickinson, his son, Luther Dickinson, gathered friends at the family Zebra Ranch studio in Independence, MS, and recorded Onward and Upward, an album of gospel songs, hymns, and blues spirituals, tracking directly to half-inch tape with no overdubs or embellishments, and the result was a no-frills and intimate testament of grief and renewal. Luther, long a member of the North Mississippi Allstars and also currently a member of the Black Crowes, dubbed the ad hoc group the Sons of Mudboy, a reference to his father's influential band Mudboy and the Neutrons. On hand were two original members of the Neutrons, Sid Selvidge (guitar, vocals) and Jimmy Crosthwait (washboard, vocals), along with Jimbo Mathus (guitar, mandolin, banjo, vocals), Steve Selvidge (guitar, Dobro, vocals), Paul Taylor (washtub bass), and vocalist Shannon McNally. The album itself is essentially a musical wake, a way to both honor and say goodbye to Jim Dickinson in the one way he would most certainly want, and it is full of muted gems like the gently sad opener, "Let It Roll" (which Luther wrote that day), a haunting version of "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning," and "Back Back Train," among others. Onward and Upward emerges as a moving tribute, an emotional goodbye, and an honest, loving photograph of a moment in time, a moment when music reaches past entertainment to become the very heart of the matter.