MUD BOY & THE NEUTRONS - Negro streets at dawn

MUD BOY & THE NEUTRONS Negro streets at dawn cd 1993 New Rose 320 kbps

Dear Dad / Split Pea Shell / The President / Money Talks / Summer D Slum / Land of 1000 Shotguns (part 1 & 2) / Dark End Of The Street / Carl's Blues / Power to the people.

Mud Boys & The Neutrons : L. Baker : lead guitar, vocals / J. Crosthwait : washboard , percussion, vocals / J. Dickinson : keyboards, guitar, vocal / S. Selvidge : rhythm guitar, vocal.

+ J. Carstein : drums / N. Watson : bass / J."Junior" Markham : harmonica / J. Segerson : guitar / J. Baker : additional percussion / J. Spake : sax / Al "Fish" Herring : trumpet / W. "The Fox" Brown, J. Johnson & J. Reddick : backing vocals.

One of the unheralded MVPs of rock, soul, and blues music, James Luther "Jim" Dickinson (who died August 15, 2009) was a gifted songwriter, musician, and producer who helped shape some of the most important music of the 20th century. A Memphis native who thrived in the city's melting pot of blues, R&B, rockabilly, and gospel, Dickinson took it all in, and not only managed to impart this distinctive musical flavor to his own infrequent recordings, but also to those that he produced. His sons Luther and Cody Dickinson inherited their father's musical gifts, forming the influential blues-rock outfit the North Mississippi Allstars.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas Dickinson moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee at an early age. Attending college at Baylor University, Dickinson dabbled in music while at school, but upon returning to Memphis in the early-1960s, he planned a career as a history teacher. His part-time performances with Delta bluesmen like Furry Lewis prompted his wife to urge him to pursue music as a career. Dickinson would become an in-demand session player, playing with early rockers like Bill Justis and the Jesters.
Dickinson formed the Dixie Flyers in the late-1960s with a group of Memphis musicians, becoming the Atlantic Records house band and performing on recordings by blues, soul, and roots-rock artists like Aretha Franklin, Billy Lee Riley, Albert Collins, and Sam and Dave. The band was encouraged by the label to record an album, which would instead become Dickinson's 1972 solo debut, "Dixie Fried". A curious mix of raw Delta blues, country twang, and Southern boogie-rock, Dixie Fried accomplished little commercially, but would become a cult favorite in the years to follow.

During the 1970s, Dickinson moved behind the board and began working as a producer. His work on the Memphis cult band Big Star's final album, "Third", would make Dickinson a cult figure himself, and he would also producer Big Star frontman Alex Chilton's "Like Flies On Sherbert" album in 1979. Any band that wanted a bit of Dickinson's Memphis magic would sojourn to the Bluff City, and Dickinson would produce albums by Jason & the Scorchers, Willy DeVille, Mojo Nixon, Green On Red, the Replacements, Chris Stamey, The True Believers, Mudhoney, Rocket from the Crypt and Screaming Jay Hawkins, among many others.
Dickinson remained a sought-after session musician also during the 1970s as well, and you can hear his piano work on songs as varied as the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" and the Flamin' Groovies' "Teenage Head" . During this time J. Dickinson also began a collaboration with noted slide-guitarist Ry Cooder, contributing to 1971's "Into The Purple Valley", the first of several albums and soundtracks that the two artists created together.

During the late-70s, J. Dickinson formed the band Mud Boy & the Neutrons with bluesmen area Sid Selvidge, Lee Baker, and Jimmy Crosthwait. Pursuing a unique idea of swamp-blues, folk, country, and gospel music, the band recorded three albums during the 1980s for France's New Rose Records. Dickinson stayed busy throughout the late-80s and 1990s, releasing a second solo album, Free Beer Tomorrow in 2002, and producing albums from such diverse artists as Seattle's Mudhoney, Doug Sahm's Texas Tornados, Mississippi bluesman T-Model Ford, and acoustic bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart. He also lent his distinctive piano sound to Bob Dylan for his 1997 "comeback" album, "Time Out Of Mind".

Through the years, Dickinson contributed to his son's North Mississippi Allstars project as both a producer and piano player, often under the pseudonym "East Memphis Slim." In 2006, J. Dickinson was backed by his sons for this roots-rock and R&B set, Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger, and he released a collection of pre-rock standards called Dinosaurs Run In Circles in early 2009. Working virtually right until his hospitalization for heart problems, Dickinson performed with the band Snake Eyes, which included several younger veterans of the Memphis rock scene. Dickinson died August 15, 2009 of heart complications in Memphis, TN at the age of 67, closing out a varied and impressive musical career that had lasted over four decades. Source here & here.

Thanks to Alexandre for this one !