John Fusco and the X-Road Riders

Self-titled

Self-released

Anytime the Dickinson brothers get involved, you need to pay attention. This time it’s younger brother Cody, drummer in North Mississippi All-Stars but multi-instrumentalist here in support of another multi-instrumentalist John Fusco, the award-winning screenwriter for the film Crossroads. Guests include Luther Dickinson and cohort, Memphis rap pioneer Al Kapone (Hustle & Flow). They form the X-Roads Riders, with Risse (Sharisse) Norman on vocals, and guest appearances from horns and harmonica.

The album was recorded at the Checkerboard Lounge Studios (Checkerboard Records is Dickinson’s owned label)  in the heart of the Delta, Southaven, MS.  The genesis for the album is expressed directly in Fusco’s liner notes on the album jacket’s inset – “In 1986 I found myself back in the Mississippi Delta of my younger musical wanderings, seeing my first movie Crossroads film on location. 32 years later, after shooting a new movie in New Orleans {The Highwaymen}, I found myself driving solo across the same Delta, retracing the music life I had left behind for too long. Most of these songs were written on that solo trip, or as a direct result of the experience. I wish to thank Cody Dickinson and the North Mississippi All-Stars family  (we miss you, JLD) for helping me bring my music love full-circle and recording these new songs, appropriately, I the birthplace of the blues.”

Okay, you know where this is going. There’s a wealth of online information on Fusco, a Vermonter,  who like many, fell in love with blues and the Allman Brothers southern rock. Fusco didn’t just leave it in is mind, heart and soul. He boarded a Greyhound at an early age and headed south.  So much for journeys. Let’s pick up where we left off. Fusco’s journey at hand ended in Memphis at Cody Dickinson’s house.  The first one they laid down (second track) was the Irish proverb inspired “Drink Takes the Man,” prompting Cody’s in-born producer instincts to hit the record button instantly. From the opening track, this is greasy, dirty, gutbucket  blues full of piercing slide guitar and filthy rhythms. You’ll hear those classic Allman Brothers Dickey Betts-like southern rock riffs too. Gregg Allman lives in “Can’t Have Your Cake.”

For much of these sessions it was just Cody and Fusco. Fusco sang and played Hammond B3, piano, bass on the organ, and acoustic guitar. Cody chimed in with guitar, dobro, bass and piano, in addition to his usual drums and trademark electric washboard. At one point, Fusco mentioned he was hearing some gospel vocals in the music. This prompted Cody to immediately call their go-to cohort, Sharisse (Risse) Norman, thus forming the X-Road Riders. Norman puts her unique stamp on songs like “Poutine,” referencing the French-fry delicacy and nodding to Fusco’s Vermont-Canada border roots. The tune also features trumpeter and fellow Vermonters Josh Clinger on trumpet. Another Vermonter, Bradley “Baby J” Jewett adds tenor sax to the roadhouse stomper “I Got Soul.”

That track and the similar “Hello Highway” spotlight Vermonter harmonicist Mark Lavoie, who was Sonny Terry’s driver and protégé. As expected, the requisite “Crossroads” finds its way into the mix with a different twist as Luther Dickinson handles the slide guitar and rapper Al Kapone contributes spoken word in the middle verse. Fusco says, “I felt no one has ever done that with this song. And I thought if we can bookend a strong freestyle stanza of Memphis ‘crunk’ with this deeply-rooted gospel approach it really takes it sown a new lane, which is what coming to the crossroads is all about.”

Yes, these are elite names, but they’ve been raised to appreciate the blues. They know it and it shows.

• Jim Hynes

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