[rating=6.00]
Cody Dickinson’s Leeway for the Freeway is not his first solo effort outside the group he founded, The North Mississippi Allstars: while his sibling Luther was a participating member of The Black Crowes seven years ago, the drummer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist headed a Dixie rock-influenced outfit called the Hill Country Revue. While this record under Cody’s own name, is a similarly roots-oriented affair, within its relatively brief (thirty-five minute) duration, he ranges wide in style as befits the modern renaissance-man persona the man posits on his website.
Such sophistication gives the lie to the informality of the home-style recording milieu of Leeway for the Freeway. Six weeks of recording the LP last year in Dickinson’s kitchen, produced by Dickinson’s mother Mary Lindsay Dickinson (wife of the late great producer/musician/songwriter Jim) reveals an adherence to economy in the resulting ten tracks mirrored in the wisdom Cody displays in refusing to make this a wholly solo project.
“Heartache and Pain” is, however, not the only cut here that sounds like its foundation is all one player and, in fact, more interaction with other musicians, including some healthy improvisation would elevate this album another level altogether, particularly if the guests here were involved. A subdued but effective contrast to the shadowy ballad “Stranger,” to which keyboardist John Medeski contributes in such understated fashion, the breezy pop jazz of this title song is as charmingly accessible as can be, its biting electric guitar courtesy Duane Betts (current fretman for Dawes the band and son of estranged Allman Brother Dickey). Those tones are right in line with the preceding track “Boomer’s Story” where brotherhood Luther adds his own blustery guitar. And “Wing and A Prayer” has an indelible gospel imprint, not unlike some of NMA’s more traditional tunes and pedal steel wizard Robert Randolph, who learned to play in the church of sacred steel, authenticates that influence.
The integration of these stellar players add as much panache as marketing value to Leeway for the Freeway. The zen attitude that informs “Been to the Mountaintop” belies Dickinson’s folksy vocal delivery as much as the clean, hard-hitting sound of this recording makes it all the more wondrous it was recorded in such an informal setting. But the gimmicky sounds emanating from various electric keyboards on Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” only render this track pure novelty especially in juxtaposition to “Across the Borderline,” one of a number of originals here where the composer relies too on platitude.
Immersing himself in a variety of projects including photography, film-making itself, plus movie scoring and acting itself, besides continuing to participate in the Allstars, may explain the overall superficiality of Cody Dickinson’s Leeway For the Freeway, suggesting he’s spreading himself too thin. Nevertheless, the scintillating contributions of the sit-ins more than compensate and make the record worth coming back to.
