The Dickinson brothers are multi instrumentalists but predominantly its Luther on an array of guitars, bass, Fender, Gibson and tonight a tin can guitar with Cody typically on drums, guitar and often the washboard but alas not tonight. In a surprising shift they are joined by a second drummer, Brady Blade on stage tonight.
Whilst on record they now have a solid back catalogue, like that other fine example of modern blues Gary Clark Jr it’s live where they really shine. Luther Dickinson has to be one of the top ten guitarists in the world. It’s not a showy style but the speed of this fingers on the fret have to be seen and his slide work is incredible.
The twin drum attack allows one to concentrate on rhythm while the other can flourish and fill complementing the guitar and vocals. With a new album ‘Prayer for Peace’, appropriate title in these troubled times, the set draws from that piece but there is a lot of room for tracks from what I still regard as their best, the debut ‘Shake hands with Shorty’. ‘Shake em Down’, ‘Po Black Maddie’ and ‘Going down South’ sound as fresh and relevant today as when they were first written by Fred McDowell and RL Burnside.
Tonight the guys are joined by the Rev Osagyefo Uhuru Sekeu for some dreadlock shaking vocals on a few tracks.
It’s a two hour breathless set of a modern interpretation of classic blues and as usual they nail it.
Keep on blues rockin y’all.