[rating=4.00]
With the passing of their father the Dickinson boys, Luther and Cody teamed back up with bassist Chris Chew and released this heartfelt collection of southern rock that they “Produced for Jim Dickinson”.
The loss of a father is massive, but when he is also your biggest musical influence it is going to be felt all over the album. “This A’Way” starts things on a crunchy, pissed vibe which turns out to be the weakest song on the disk. The North Mississippi Allstars do celebration of life better then they do anger and instantly “Jumpercable Blues” gets the party of celebrating life started with an electric boogie and a brush off of the dance floor. Mavis Staple adds her vocals to the gospel of “The Meeting” and moves the proceedings closer to heaven. The centerpiece of Keys To The Kingdom, “Hear the Hills”, takes us fully there while ranking as the most complete song the Allstars have composed. The passionate lyrics capture spirituality, life/love/death while finishing with an instrumental outro that will simply cook in the live setting; this tune is a keeper.
The album hits other notes; the band gets playful with “New Orleans Walkin’ Dead”, slide into the deep south with “Let It Roll” and look back with a fairly straight forward cover of “Stuck Inside a Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again”. While vocals have never been this trio’s strong point the delivery here contains more feeling for obvious reasons as the Dickinson brothers dig deep to gut out the true sound of these tracks. The voices aren’t perfect and rather then trying to gussy up the sound a rawer approach would probably suit some of these delta numbers with even greater power. Then again with the directness of “Ain’t No Grave” to go along with the freewheelin’ closer “Jellyrollin’ All Over Heaven” you just know that up there somewhere Daddy is proud.
