Dixie Fried

James Luther Dickinson, James Luther Dickinson, ?????????? | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 12, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sepia Tone
• ASIN: B00006YXGY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,470 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

First time on CD for this 1972 album from the best-known unknown musician Memphis has ever produced. As a bandleader, session musician and producer, his legacy stretches back to the early '60s, when he started out in garage rock bands like Flash and the M

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes it is swampy honky tonk, but also deep soul food, October 11, 2005

By 

Bachelier ""1004"" (Ile de France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dixie Fried (Audio CD)

Add James Luther Dickinson to the pile of producer/artists whose influence is vast but whose recognition, except with cognoscenti, is minimal. He is in august company, and runs a North Mississippi/Memphis recording studio on par with Cowboy Jack Clements's outside Nashville.

With the revival of attention in southern roots music prompted by the best selling "O Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack and live recording, it is surprising Dickinson's own contribution, now available on CD, is overlooked. For with this album Dickinson gives a voice more authentic than a mere preservationist. This is far beyond the earliest Dickinson sounds from the Sun-influenced "The Goat Dancers" period. Indeed, the guitar solo on "Wine" is a fabulous execution worthy of Junior Brown, while the jackhammer piano is full-on honky-tonk, and if it were not for Dickinson's bulk you'd think the Killer himself had kicked over the piano stool to rip it out. The drums can barely keep up, and the wet voices of backup singers already sneak in notes they will scream horizontally in the after show entertainment. And this is only the first cut on the album, not the best cut on the album.

There are, perhaps, certain points of comparison with early recordings of "Little Feat," to which this reviewer can only respond: they stole it all from Dickinson.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost Masterpiece rediscovered, May 19, 2008

By 

James Harrison (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dixie Fried (Audio CD)

Originally released in 1972 this wonderful album's re release in 2002 has again appeared to have "slipped by the radar". A fantastic example of southern rock by this great american musician, mentor and producer who has worked with the greats including Dylan, Cooder, Rolling Stones to name a few.

From the opening rocker-Wine, the ballads-The Strength of Love, the country romps Louise, Dixie Fried and Wild Bill Jones, the Blues-Casey Jones and O How She Dances this recording is a classic. The version of Dylan's John Brown has been used by Dylan in pre show soundtrack for his concerts. It is the definitive version of the song

The man Dylan called "My Brother" when accepting his grammy for Time Out of Mind, after playing on same and assisting Dylan & Lanois with the production created this Classic Album 36 years ago and I have only recently discovered it, what a shame it took me so long.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dixie Fried: A Southern Recipe Masterpiece, January 21, 2003

By 

M. Gaines (Alabama, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dixie Fried (Audio CD)

"There were only a few other albums in the 1970s roots movement that even attempted to go this deep - the Flying Burrito Brother's Gilded Palace of Sin and Gene Clark's forgotten No Other come to mind - but none of them were such true products of the real roots they purported to spring from.
And the intensity goes up on the next track, a talking blues version of Dylan's scathing anti-war, anti-jingoist "John Brown." Over a funky Memphis groove that might have served as a template for Dylan's later Muscle Shoals Jesus phase, Dickinson, intoning like some sort of Delta Jim Morrison, recites the almost unbearable story of a mother's sick pride in her war-ruined son, while soprano sax and ghostly pedal steel keen out desolate obbligatos.

-Dusted-

How to describe JLD's first studio effort? Quite simply a masterpiece of every influence that ever excisted in the musical genre of rock. If you've gotten hold of his last effort "Free Beer Tomorrow: then this is your next stop. Endlessly eternal and forever deep. Get hold of this reissue before it disapears for another 20 years!