[rating=7.00]
Recorded at Memphis’ famed Royal Studios as well as their own Zebra Ranch (among other locations of spontaneous inspiration), The North Mississippi Allstars’ Prayer for Peace was created much like the band’s preceding album, World Boogie Is Coming. That is, founder siblings Luther and Cody Dickinson marry their own multi-instrumental talents to those of a large cast of collaborators among which number Oteil Burbridge, Grahame Lesh and Shardé Thomas. In doing so, the brothers maintain their roots in the blues while expanding the boundaries of this elemental genre of American music.
Yet this new record harkens even further back into the band’s past, its vivacious takes on roots recalling their debut, Shake Hands with Shorty. As on that 2000 album, the Dickinsons and their comrades shuffle tried-and-true elements of NMA’s signature sound, the fervent vocal intonations combined with gritty guitar, propulsive drums and the airy tones of flute all imparting a ring of truth to the title song (even in the heavier-studio doctoring of the CD only version “P4P”). Immediately following, the Hendrixian wail of Luther’s electric guitar hearkens to the Mississippi Delta as well as the sands of Mars, the combination of which works to render contemporary “Need to be Free,” and, by extension, the band itself.
Which is, truth be told, the foundation of the appeal for the North Mississippi Allstars. The more upbeat likes of “Miss Maybelle” and “Run Red Rooster,” all insistent twists and turns of gritty guitar and drums, exhibit the lessons absorbed by The Dickinson brothers, during an influential upbringing from their late father Jim. Producer and musician with the (not so? )divergent likes of the Rolling Stones and the Replacements, the man who cut his teeth in Sam Phillips’ Sun Records Studios, taught his offspring how to preserve traditions in order to (re) introduce them to successive generations of music lovers. As a result, the purity of the sounds on “Stealin’,” barrelhouse piano rolling swiftly alongside the nimble acoustic slide, expands the approach of this album and solidifies the NMA pedigree.
As does the familiar tone and attack of “Deep Ellum” where gospel flavors the mix via the rousing piano that’s further uplifted by the vocal chorus. In contrast, Luther’s voice conjures much of the portentous air during “Bird Without A Feather,” an atmosphere made all the more ominous with an abrupt end to the track; like many of the surrounding eleven, this cut thrives on its brevity and a similar economy permeates the one immediately following, “You Got to Move” (the same Mississippi Fred McDowell tune the Stones did on Sticky Fingers)
It’s conceivable long-time North Mississippi Allstars fans will find such familiar components of Prayer For Peace formulaic. But that’s only if those listeners don’t feel the infectious quality of the singing within “61 Highway” or the deep rattle of the drums the propels “Long Haired Doney.” The slightly muffled cacophony there only makes the harmonious track that follows all the more comforting: no matter how directly the North Mississippi Allstars beckon directly to Grateful Dead fans with “Bid You Goodnight,” as the spontaneity of the performance sinks in, along with the combination of gravitas and glee that permeates Prayer for Peace as a whole, the North Mississippi Allstars have made the song their own for the duration.
