Cody Dickinson

Homemade

Strong Place Music

Cody Dickinson, songwriter, producer, filmmaker, drummer, and jack-of-all-trades utility man embraces the latter in this DIY effort of the first order, Homemade. Fear not, The North Mississippi Allstars are an ongoing entity, touring this summer as this is being written. The ultimate team guy, as he says, “Most of My life has been spent supporting,” makes his long-anticipated debut as a solo artist. On the album Dickinson becomes a triple threat as songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, getting assistance only from his one-year-old daughter, Mavis, and on two tracks, from the charismatic Tikyra Jackson of Southern Avenue. The Dickinson family from the late James Dickinson who worked with The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, to his bandmate brother, Luther, have long been vital purveyors of American roots music, mostly steeped in the blues. Yet, their artistry has often ventured further than Mississippi Hill Country blues into southern soul, boogie woogie, and pop-flavored rock, which is what Cody delivers here, having recorded just about everything in his home studio, inspired by the company of his young children.

Opener “Homemade Blues” with its infectious rhythms is square in the Mississippi Hill Country tradition, with Dickinson showing he can wield the axe too. The rousing, anthemic “Big City” is set to a steady groove, as Dickinson pleas for unity in the refrain, “Let’s build a Big City in the heart of town.”  The rocker “Walk Right In” with Tikyra Jackson namedrops a number of tunes such as “Love In Vain,” “Steal Your Face,” and the name of one his dad’s great albums, Natural Born Killer, yet the enthusiasm that courses through the album is captured best in the last verse, “In and out of love/Now I’m sanctified/ A Family man with two kids and a wife…She just walked right in and showed me what it’s all about.”

That family theme gets reiterated on “Goodbye Albuquerque Tuesday Night” with Cody’s one year old daughter on his lap with her ad-libbing in rhythm. She’s already got that special Dickinson juju!  That gleeful mood transitions to old school R&B on “Black Curtains” while “Easy” and “As Fast As It Comes” rollick with thick groove and poppy instrumentation. “Homewrecker” stomps to impressive kit work and “Worldwide” kicks up a whirling, swirling storm (“worldwide revolution/no problems, only solutions”) before Dickinson settles, or should we say, reaches upward on the gospel-inflected closer “Can’t Feel at Home,” as Tikyra Jackson joins him one more time.

The ultimate team guy, Cody Dickinson, gets his own platform and makes the most of it with a batch of infectious tunes. If you just thought of him as a purveyor of the Mississippi Hill Country sound, you’ll undoubtedly be struck with the eclecticism he employs on his first solo outing.

• Jim Hynes

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