SOUTH MEMPHIS STRING BAND TAKES ’HOME’ ON THE ROAD South Memphis String Band Home Sweet Home March/April tour dates:
March 18 - Proud Larry’s - Oxford, MS
19 - 1884 Lounge/Minglewood Hall - Memphis, TN
20 - Carroll County Market - Carrolton, MS.
26 - Old Town School of Music - Chicago, IL
27 - The Ark - Ann Arbor, MI
29 - Woodsongs - Lexington, KY
30 - Club Cafe - Pittsburgh, PA
31 - The Birchmere - Alexandria, VA
April 1 - Le Poisson Rouge - New York, NY
2 - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA
3 - Snail Pie Lounge - Glenville, PA
4 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH
6 - Berkeley Cafe - Raleigh, NC
7 - The Grey Eagle - Asheville, NC
Luther Dickinson, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus, collectively known as SOUTH MEMPHIS STRING BAND, have set a series of performance dates in March and April in support of Home Sweet Home, their Memphis International album release . The band, which has been described as a "regional roots music supergroup," is comprised of North Mississippi Allstars and Black Crowes veteran Luther Dickinson, Grammy® winning blues/rock powerhouse Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus of Squirrel Nut Zippers renown.
The band’s tour will take them from their native Hill Country of Mississippi to audiences in such major markets as Memphis, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, plus such trend-setting towns as Oxford, Ann Arbor, Lexington, Asheville, Raleigh, not forgetting Glenville, PA and Carrolton, MS.
The troika of roots-imbued musical pros coalesced through a shared vision and consuming passion for the music of their forebears, most notably the Mississippi Sheiks, Memphis Jug Band, Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers and other practitioners of pre-blues era roots sounds. Home Sweet Home, the resulting album showcases their passion for the old timey tradition that is underscored by the group’s name. South Memphis, of course, is that rough and tumble area of the Bluff City extending from downtown to the Mississippi border and beyond. It’s where Stax Records as well as hundreds of churches thrived. The sacred and profane, holy rolling and dice rolling, were cheek by jowl in old South Memphis and its modern day namesake reflects that ecumenicism quite brilliantly. For Luther, Alvin and Jimbo South Memphis, is more of a musical state of mind than a specific geographical location setting the stage for the band’s ’down home’ style performances on their forthcoming tour. Mathus explained, “Luther, Youngblood Hart and myself have been musical co-conspirators for over a decade. It is only fitting that we should come together with acoustic instruments and perform Mississippi music.”
Jim Dickinson, before his untimely passing last summer wrote these liner notes that are included in the Home Sweet Home CD and LP:
Spring thaw. The voice of the turtle is heard in the land. Nature’s miracle of rebirth fills the breeze with the sweet smell of Easter blossoms. It’s a good time to listen to the blues. As the free world teeters once again on the terrifying brink of depression, return with us now to those bygone days of yesteryear and lose your troubles in the timeless songs of the South Memphis String. Band. Three young contemporary blues artists, each in how own right a rising star. Three modern Mississippi musicians on a knight’s quest to retrieve, preserve and, carry into the future America’s most unique and meaningful musical statement. String band music from the Mississippi Sheik’s and Cannon’s Jug Stompers vaudeville humor yet with a dark core of philosophic irony that gives modern relevance and meaning to an antique form.
These three musicians are each different and yet the same. Luther Dickinson’s good natured side has spread North Mississippi Hill Country Boogie to the world. Jimbo Mathus is the singing voice of Huckleberry Finn. The mighty Alvin Youngblood Hart is a force of nature and perhaps the best modern purveyor of the early Delta blues alive today.
So pull up a chair and pour some gin in your glass. If you don’t dig this there is seriously something wrong with you.
World Boogie is coming,
Jim Dickinson
