Cody Dickinson, best known as a founding member and drummer of North Mississippi Allstars, is also involved in the creation of the documentary film series Take Me To The River, led by Martin Shore, celebrating the origin, growth, and modern expression of Blues music in different regions. In his well over twenty years in music, he’s never released a solo album of his own until now. Homemade arrived on June 21st, 2024, and represents a major development for him creatively, but was the product of major life developments already underway as he built a family.
From songwriting to performing every instrument to handling engineering and Production, Dickinson was in the driver’s seat, and it enabled him to seek out not just his own sound but his own sounds. That resulted in a fusion of Pop, Rock, Blues, and more that reflects his unique perspective as a longtime professional musician and collaborator. I spoke to Cody Dickinson about the rewarding path he’s been on, making self-discoveries that have led to a period of unparalleled creativity in his life and the results we see on Homemade.
Hannah Means-Shannon: I understand that you’re heading out on tour, going overseas?
Cody Dickinson: Yes, I’m heading to the UK where I’m going to play Red Rooster Festival, a beautiful event.
I’m very interested in how UK audiences react to Americana and The Blues, as a Blues fan myself.
Me too! Red Rooster is an Americana-themed festival. It’s really heavy on Blues, but there’s also a New Orleans flavor, as well, in the lineup and the food. It’s like a JazzFest meets the Hill Country. It’s curated by Duke Harry Grafton, who’s a royal and a very cool guy. He and I have become good friends and worked together on some projects, including the festival and a film I’m also working on, Take Me To The River: London. That’s a film series that I co-created, and this will be the third one. The first one is about Memphis, and the second is about New Orleans. The third one is about London.
I’m familiar with your films and think they are awesome. I did not know that you are doing a London episode, that’s wonderful!
It’s a study of collaboration and generations and documenting the process. It’s really an educational initiative. Duke Harry is an incredible patron of the arts, and it’s fascinating to see the way in which Americana music manifests in London and the UK in general. We’re currently in production. Documentary filmmaking is very challenging and incredibly gratifying. It’s amazing to hear the stories first-hand and get to be a part of the narrative because as you’re making the films, the narrative kind of unfolds. We have teams of Producers who carry on the process. It’s really cool stuff.
How did you find the time to make your first solo album, Homemade? You’re involved in a lot of projects, obviously.
[Laughs] I just love what I do. I love being creative. Sometimes, time is the biggest gift. When you have time to really sit back and reflect, that’s when I’m able to dig in with writing. I got married and I started a family, and that changed my life. It was the most beautiful and incredible thing that’s ever happened to me. We had little babies to take care of, so my life just slowed down big time. That opened up this new creativity. I was also working with and around my kids. That was a big part of it, as well. That was also the genesis of the album and the whole concept of Homemade, telling my story. We were informing each other creatively.
I feel like in past generations, that might have been a little more common, having children around music being created and being played, but we’ve lost that a little.
That is such a good point. There are so many new parents who I’ve gotten to know recently who have to work all the time. Having children becomes a juggling thing. My story is that it’s been a huge gift, and I’ve been very fortunate to be able to spend as much time with my kids as I do because when I’m not on tour, I’m home all the time. My wife is able to stay home with them when I travel for work, or they come with me. We’re fortunate and kind of old-fashioned in that way. But when I do have to leave for a tour, it’s difficult.
When I wrote the song “Goodbye Albuquerque Tuesday Night,” there’s the verse “So long, Cleveland, Sunday evenin’, goodye Albuquerque, Tuesday night. You won’t see me in the mornin’, I’ll be leaving without a warning.” What that means is, “I’m done! I’m going home!” As I was doing the live vocals for that song, my daughter Mavis, who had just turned two, grabbed the vocal mic and started ad-libbing all these parts! She was adding these sassy vocal stabs, and it was amazing.
It fit the song, the idea of the song, and added this whole dimension out of nowhere. I had to leave it in the mix! Normally, I wouldn’t do that. But she loves it. In the context of the song, it was crucial. What you hear on the album is the way that it went down live, totally spontaneously. In a nutshell, that’s how the whole album happened and how I was able to do it. I incorporated the kids and my wife into the process as much as possible.
A lot of people might want to be more in control of every element on a recording and not react so spontaneously. Especially since this is your first solo album! Is that part of your mentality, though?
I am very reckless like that. I am creatively an open book. There’s a lot of spontaneity on the record. There’s a moment in “Can’t Feel At Home” in the second verse where I just start singing, almost opera-style, with really open vocals that I’d never even thought of doing before. What you hear on the record is the first time I did it. It’s very important to me not to overthink things when I’m working alone. I co-produced this record, but I recorded it by myself. So the act of engineering and Production really helps me since it takes me out of my own head. I trick myself into the performance by thinking of all the recording aspects, so if something special happens, I keep it. It’s very raw. It’s very personal. I hope people like that about it. It keeps it exciting for me.
I listen to a lot of music that’s intentionally raw, for instance, in the singer/songwriter vein. Homemade doesn’t feel so raw in that sense. I do get a live feeling from the record, though.
Yes, I didn’t belabor things. It’s so easy to get caught up in that with computers. Another part of recording at home is that you have the luxury of jamming. Even “Goodbye Albuquerque” is a Pop song at its core, but it jams out at the end. There are horns, there’s even Mellon keyboards. It’s a bit of a sonic adventure, and the song almost self-destructs at the end. Why not? I’m at home recording, and so I just let it go until it kind of falls apart. That leads to some really interesting jams happening in the studio, guiding the process. It’s like “jam-recording,” which is an interesting concept and definitely how I approach making my records.
That brings me to what I’m about to do, which is perform. I have killer musicians lined up and I’m excited to hear what it’s going to sound like on stage. I tried to keep that idea of performing live close when recording.
Do you think that the changes in your life through your marriage and family have affected what you write about and the sound of your music?
It’s complexly life-changing. It’s 180 degrees. It’s priorities and what I think is important, how I want to spend my time and energy. I used to be an “in the moment” type person, and that serves my profession well since I’m just “in it.” But emotionally, it’s more love than I could have ever imagined possible. It’s very, very hard to put into words. The emotional side of it is complex and scary, and there’s a lot of fear of the unknown in the responsibility of being “the adult.” All of that equals growth. It’s massive. I had children older, in my 40s, and there’s a lot to be said for living to get yourself in order, too. I’m not saying I’ve evolved; it’s not like that. It’s a lateral move, but it is a major transition into a new life. The way it affected my creativity was incredibly positive.
It sounds like this is a version of yourself that you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to know.
Yes! It was like it was dormant. As I got older, I started to steer myself in those directions consciously. There have been a lot of blessings, and I just want to maintain the best response to it, because I feel so grateful.
A lot of the songs on the album have that feeling of discovery and celebration, but there’s a little bit of a contrast occasionally, which helps tell the story. There’s a need for healing in “Big City,” but there’s also a bigger contrast with “Homewrecker,” which is a little different from some of the other songs.
[Laughs] Yes, from a creative point of view, “Homewrecker” is very reckless. I built this beautiful picture but then tore it down. It’s drama, and the songs are micro and macro in that way. Each one is like a little hero’s journey. Even in “Goodbye Albuquerque,” there are the lines, “She caught me on the phone, all alone, words were spoken.” That has multiple meetings. It sets up a bit of drama. Every song has a bit of an arc or story to it. That song, “Homewrecker,” does, too. It’s obviously tongue-in-cheek and it’s a fun song. I think the common theme of the album is that I take on love in all of its forms.
I see some self-critique there or at least some critique, and I think that’s important. You need a little bit of grit in there, or things feel a little unreal.
Exactly! You’re so right. I have been struggling with that song. I just don’t know if I’m going to play it live. It’s the only song on the record where I can’t see myself singing it live. But I think I’m going to. I’ve got to at least try it! That song has a lot of chords and a lot of lyrics, and it’s very fast, so we need to take that one on.
It’s interesting how songs often fit together if they are created during the same time period, even if they have significant differences, too.
Totally. It’s like one big thought that fits together in pieces.
It seems like “Homemade Blues” is a bit of a lynchpin in there. It explains to me what the core of the record is. It speaks about your background, too, I think, expressing what you come from.
I agree a thousand percent. “Homemade Blues” was my chance to tell my story in three verses. It’s very autobiographical and literal. When I name the street names and mention the pool table, all that stuff is real. I’m trying to pull from my memory and all the characters. Those are all the guys who’d be down there, playing pool, when they’d be taking a break from playing. That song was originally a more somber, melancholy piano piece. It was slow and heavy. Then I rewrote it as a Blues song and it just came to life. It became the cornerstone sentiment of the album in terms of being my story.
