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well hello friends today we are sitting down with Luther Dickinson what's up
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veteran of the North Mississippi All Stars a past member of The Black Crows
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producer you produce acts like uh you know Samantha Fish yeah yeah and uh
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currently he's a he well he just recently released a a Duo you know record with old JD Simo and they're uh
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they're promoting that and doing shows right now so thank you for letting us uh
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you know sit down with you and and chat a bit pleasure thanks for inviting me yeah well first off I'd love if we could
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talk a little bit about your dad oh it's my favorite subject okay so you know so
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Luther's dad Jim piano player record producer kind of North Mississippi
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Memphis kind of dude kind ofh dude and really you know made a lot of things
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happen and so kind of give us give us a little bit about your dad so uh
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he was born in Little Rock and they traveled around when he was really young but he moved to Memphis in the 50s you
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know and he grew up I mean being a teenager in Memphis Tennessee in the 50s who is into music that's Rock and Roll
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Heaven it's the epicenter gets no better yeah literally listening to Dewey Phillips on the radio and you know his
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he had one of two High School bands that played like rock and roll and blues on the high school circuit granted he was 5
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years younger than Elvis so so just say he was not but he sang on The Last Sun
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single Cadillac Man on the last legitimate yellow label son single um
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yeah so he was younger than the original guys but you know um but he grew up
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around it and uh you know he saw Elvis He Saw everybody Billy L riy was really
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one of his Heroes because to my dad you know Elvis was like you know an alien like a superstar
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obviously the energy never seen anything like it before since but Billy L Ry to my father was like oh I could do that
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you know um and then it was rolling James on guitar so his band opened up for Bo
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didley when he rolled through town and that was a life-changing experience for he and I but that's another story that's
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how long story short that's how Dad figured out open tuning he'd been playing B Dilly's whole repertoire his
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whole High School career yeah but when he rolled through town they were looking at his hands and they were like what is
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he doing he's not even making cords and they stayed up all night that night and just figured it out like decoded open
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tuning that that's amazing because you think about the fact that I mean now we take all these things for granted oh
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yeah but at the time it was like what the hell is this guy doing I mean how how is he making that sound how is he
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able to have such a smooth transition in between those chords and and go all over the place I love that story and and for
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me when I got my first guitar jump you know decades later uh he challenged me to learn three chords and he' get me a
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little amp yeah but eventually my mom was like just tune it open for him and he did and I've been he showed me Bo
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didley and I've been in open tuning ever since you know so that really was a pivotal moment for us all yeah and so he
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grew up in Memphis he worked like I said he sang for son then he uh he actually
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went to Baylor and studied theater to stay out of Roc and stay out away from
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the draft Yeah but he regretted it cuz like he came back home and there were the mares and there was you know the
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beginning of stacks like all everybody but then he went folk you know when the first Dylan record the tape first he had
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heard of tape first you know everybody went folk you know and so as a young folky in the mid-60s they were Bohemians
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not hippies he was a rock and roll Greaser kid yeah then turned folk Bohemian and then uh around that time
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John fahe other gentleman Bill bar they were coming down from up North and discovering the blues guys so check that
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out long story short the southern musicians love the records read the one
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book The Country Blues by samel Charters that was available but the veil of segregation was such that the southern
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kids didn't just reach out over the tracks and find fre Louis Gus Canon book
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a white all right all right there but these kids from North came down with
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just enough of a open- mind different perspective and they and once the Bohemian kids and the bluesmen got
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together Memphis blew up in the mid-60s that and they started doing the Memphis Country Blues festivals right and
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there's some of those on YouTube it's yeah it's really good there's one of them it starts with like Rufus Thomas with yeah and it's like with the with
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the bar playing with them and then and then it's all these you know FY Lewis and all all these bua white and McDow
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yeah um and dad's playing with sleepy John and uh U Yan relle and hammy Nixon
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on that video yeah yeah yeah they kind of edited him out you know I was like oh there's a white dude go back yeah but uh
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uh he loved sleepy John loved his piano playing so the
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dad he was friends with Stanley Booth okay who was running around with the Rolling Stones writing a book and which
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eventually did it took him decades the stones were towards the end of their tour and their work permit was
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out but they wanted to record America before they had to leave leading up towards Altimont and uh they wanted to go to
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Memphis and go to Stax so booth called my father to help facilitate this and dad was like yo but they had to keep it
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secret yeah and he was like there they had just been to Memphis and this whole
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city was on fire still from it yeah and he you can't keep it secret in Memphis you know if you got to stay under the
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radar go to muscle schs nobody will know who they are yeah so that's why they went and Dad met him there and uh he
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played on Wild Horses he played piano on Wild Horses because Stu wouldn't play A minor chord yeah he was a boogie wogie
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player yeah and he would not play A minor chord on piano so stood up yeah
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Dad slid on in there slid in there and got to play on a Stones classic man yeah
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then uh Wexler and Tom Dow hired him and his band from Memphis to go to Miami and
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work for Atlantic yeah so he worked with uh uh jry Jeff Walker being free as my
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favorite record they did U but the artha record spirit in the dark one of grammy that's a great one they had some oh oh
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man they did that uh Sam the Sham Sam simio and Dwayne Almond's on the scene
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yeah so and then that led up right to me being born and then he started working
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with Riot cter yeah it's just crazy it's crazy you know
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growing up in that kind of environment but as a kid yeah it's just not normal yeah cuz you didn't know you didn't know
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any different I knew dad was cool and I knew I loved music and always wanted to be a guitar player because he was always
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surrounded by awesome guitar players yeah but it's just normal when you're a
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kid it's weird that's the funny thing yeah so tell me about I mean I you know
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like a lot of people I love Ry cter and I love how cantankerous he is and just he is so funny I love his interviews so
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what was it like just hanging so Ry cter is at your house or whatever you're kind of around Ry cter what is what the hell
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was he like to be honest they recorded Boomer story muscle shows the rest was all in California so Dad would go to
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work okay and come home but he would have cassettes you know he'd have rough Mi I grew up listening to Rough mixes of
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everything he produced or played yeah that was the ritual he would come home we' listen to the tapes yeah he used to
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be real to reals yeah and then cassettes or they tour Europe and come home you know he tell tell stories about and cter
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and all the shenanigans of the road John hayatt was playing rhythm guitar yeah but no cter I only let me see I guess
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I've Shake shook his hand twice we've spoken face to face maybe three
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times and but we spoke we've talked on the phone a few times I love Ry man yeah
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but he taught my dad a lot man he he like what I was just telling my
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friend about this cuz now we're in our now we have kids and watching them shape
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their lives when Dad realized that we were into music he was like oh no you
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know he used to discourage us like don't do it just copy m a hard life don't do it unless you have to yeah and I never
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wanted to do anything else and I was not even naturally talented I did not it was not
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a natural I had a natural creative process but not a natural musician my brother was but I knew I wanted to do it
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and that can be a greater greater asset than yeah the desire um and the focus
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mhm but anyway so Dad he was talking to cter he like oh no they want to be musicians like and C's like no man
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encourage him he's like it's a worthy trade it's a great craft it's a skill you can go anywhere and make a living as
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a musician and I just told that to my friend about his kid and and I'm so glad
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he did because it's true dad made his way in the studio he didn't want a tour but we've made our way on the road for
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the most part but tutor was right man and that mindset of he is cantankerous
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but when it comes to work he's he's has a very good work ethic when they would work like you know from 9 to5 10 to 10
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to six and he would uh he called it a job of work you know he was
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very uh very studious about it it wasn't like to stay up all night and try and
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capture the magic you know what I mean there's a lot of that going on in Memphis in the 70s yeah so it was yeah I
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like that the the work ethic of treating it like work and not just not waiting for the Muse to hit it's like exact The
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Muse isn't going to hit unless you're you're working and doing it you can't just yeah you can't just wait for yeah
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that's you got to be in the habit yeah you know especially now that people record by themselves so much or as a
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writer too you have to stay in the habit to be in the habit of it I love that Jack White's got a great work ethic you
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know um what is it you know inspiration likes to find you at work yes and and I
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found it too I did a film score in 2020 2021 and it really suited my creative
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process but I found that you even when you sit down and I would just I would set bpms harmonic parameters and just
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start improvising and layering um you writing for the picture not to film but
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I would put it to film later but anyway I found that even when you think that nothing's going on just keep playing
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play through and before you know it you're in the zone and it starts happening but it might take 10 minutes or an hour or whatever you can't just
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strike right away you got to put put in some sweat but right cter man you know his hand is this big it's amazing you
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know what he does so long story short short story long the first time I met
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him we were playing a a festival in California his son wae's band was playing Cuda was there and I had my this
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was our first tour we're about to overseas for first time 2000 first proper big tour and I pull up my
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Telecaster I put a real silver tone lipstick here and like a tysco what I call like paper foil real piece of [ __ ]
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microphonic but I love those pickups in the middle of my Telly screwed them right into the wood I said look man look
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I did it and he just [Music] went like so that sent me on a journey
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and then reading his interviews I realized that he's he loves Springs you know of course the chamber yeah but I
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found that that led me also because of a bunch of SGS I had
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I like pickups mounted on springs on the pit guard more than mounted in the wood
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some people are different yeah but following that cter thing you know as more Springs the better because they
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really do add to me pickups mounted on Springs M on the pit guard with springs
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the sound more springy and bouncy and I don't know I like that that makes sense yeah because it it definitely changes
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the sound and that's why a lot of guys are always trying to Tamp down all that and they they purposefully take the spr
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rings out because they don't want that kind of microphonic thing but it's like for me it's like that's that's a great
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thing it makes the guitar More Alive yeah cuz it's like you know when you can tap on the the pit guard and it
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comes out you know you hear it through the amp it's like that's a good thing like you want that maybe that's an Indulgence you know if you're a session
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player and you got to be clean and you know what I mean but but yeah for us that's like yeah man it's nice so so at
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what point do you start playing obviously you know you you get a guitar and you get the open tuning and when when do you start getting serious about
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it well before we get there because it kind of Segways in later after cter they
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toured they made records they did film scores then he started producing again
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and that was amazing started with the True Believers from Austin Texas yeah um and then green on red and then The
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Replacements please do meet me and it went on and on and on and mooso Nixon rest in peace my brother but and by that
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time I was 12 13 14 and I was eating up with it at this time I was practicing
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nonstop you know I I'd read every book in the Mississippi library the Hernando you know uh there was nothing I had like
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the Homespun vhs's and cassettes U guitar for the practicing musician had the tablature Andy alah
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Hort taught me music theory in two pages you know what I know of it yeah uh it
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was so little back then hitting rewind moving the needle on the records yeah but I was just I was full in and then
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here it comes The Replacements and dad and his friends
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were fascinated westg because he was playing an open G tuning he was in open tuning but he was playing in the key of
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F and they were like how is he playing in other keys without a capo and he was
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doing like punk rock bar chords yes in open tuning yeah so Dad literally had me
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come to the studio to sit and watch and decipher what Westerberg was doing because they all wanted to steal this
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[ __ ] Hey kid Hey kid you go in there I got I
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got to be working the board you go out there and you and you steal his lick no he literally sat me down as close as I
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am to you and said hey Paul why don't you redo that rhythm guitar on Red Red Wine real quick you know yeah and I was
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just like so I had the shapes you know um it's so cool and that was the
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beginning of my recording they were so sweet uh that they let me play on please to meet me the song song Shooting dirty
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pool dad wanted he had a concept it's all about this concept for a music video he wanted a barf fight in this music
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video so he had me come play like he had worked on Crossroads with raich cter
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yeah Steve VI yeah which was huge let me digress first like Stevi of course whoa
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yeah wow Jack Butler's gonna like you yeah you know but I grew up at Blues but that was my father's music and his
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friends it's part of our community but it never spoke to me I just loved it as with they did but watching Crossroads I
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literally in the car back from the theater I was like that Blues is pretty cool man let me have some of those tapes
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you know what I mean it turned me on it I mean it was it was a cool movie I mean for you know for what it and also you
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know Ry did a great job of the you know the soundtrack and the you know the the Epic guitar duel you know at the end you
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know which is pretty it's a little ridiculous the fact that he actually wins by doing the the classical thing
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you know that pissed my dad off no end yeah because it's like you've just had
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Ry cter you know playing all these great licks and then all of a sudden Ralph machio beats you know Steve VI by
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playing by miming Steve VI's licks you know that he played but yeah I mean but
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Stillwood ending Hollywood ending but still it was like you know you got all that stuff you know of course rise
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playing the stuff but you know you got the the kid with Theo yeah Ralph machio with the Telecaster and the pig nose amp
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that's on his belt good dude that was 13 14 maybe 12 I guess I was 12 and 13 I
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was like that's so cool well if you had your hands on that guitar as much as you got them on that girl's ass you might be
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getting somewhere but so anyway so I had some Steve I tricks yeah uh and uh dad had me
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play just like comical heavy metal noises on shooting dirty pool yeah but that's how I became friends with uh with
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with Tommy and Paul and they I just saw Tommy last week he we played a gig together he sounded fantastic
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I love those guys yeah so what were you asking me because I had to back up when did I start playing yeah I was so you
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you start playing you you're doing the the open tuning and yeah you kind of you kind of gave us a you know progression
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as you got as you got more serious so you know so you you've got you know
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credits as you know playing on recordings cuz your your dad's including you on things when did you you know when
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are you you know out there playing gigs and making money and stuff on top of that besides man that's a great question
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cuz that was some great advice in my father's um by the time I was 16 so I practice
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practice and I started writing songs and Dad he was like yo he's like you can't play like like say Dad David hood that
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that community of session players the concept of being able to play to play
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was serious that like I'm not going to [ __ ] you like you can't play Cody was a natural musician just dad is his
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greatest champion he could play anything from the time he was 12 but he was like
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you're going to have to keep practicing I'm not going to [ __ ] you you just got to keep working you know then when I started writing
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songs it Dawn me I could write songs and and he saw potential in the songs the
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creative process and that that I that I do have that I can apply to anything be it doing a dishes or putting a band
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together or producing a record or writing a song or whatever that's just a way I like to think about things make
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things and organize things so we started writing songs and uh that's when
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Dad um said Okay okay so he booked a
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session with us at Sam Phillips Roland James wow Roland James he recorded
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everyone's first session in Memphis and sure enough the dad played bits we went and recorded like five songs with Roland
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started a great relationship with Roland who is a total his plan on the Billy Lee Riley and the Jered Le Lewis records is
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insane it's great stuff yeah it's F yeah he was such a cool cat I'm I'm glad that
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in the last you know that that he has you know gotten some credit you know yes well anytime Dylan or Bruce springing
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would come Town they'd always go see him or but so anyway so we started working with Dad and when he cut those demos
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with us he said oh okay so as a producer everything started shifting like our
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relationships became more dimensional because he became producer dad producer not Dad yeah and he's said oh okay this
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is a Garage Band they have the typical problems any band has I know how to help this yeah so how am I going to teach him
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so let me let me play him through it so he did not want to do this but he had to
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he booked a gig with the family band Jim Dickinson and the hardly can
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Playboys yeah that's great hardly can playboard and it was brutal we he'd wake
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us up in the morning summertime wake us up early in the morning we go in the living room room and he was singing to a solid state Sun amp God he was like
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you're out of tune it's worthless and and then or that gives me PTSD to the
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being in the recording studio on the you're out of tune it's worthless on The Talk Back [ __ ] or my brother he'd be
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hammering that [ __ ] we called it the Doogie Hower keyboard hated that keyboard rolling through the same Sun
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amp you're Dragon you're Dragon do anything but drag it's okay to rush but
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don't hammering the eighth notes and was likeo brutal but he taught us and we started
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playing and man around a year or so later he said look you say you want to
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do this you've got a car sorry you have a guitar an amp and access to a car you
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say you want to do it what are you doing yeah go do it get out there and he
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literally put me out on the streets hustling and I've been hustling ever since man where where were some of the
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places you first first played in in Memphis or round or North Mississippi or whereever no it was Memphis um um I
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didn't discover North Mississippi scene for another like 10 years you know till the early mid 90s you know fat Pon
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records I mean it was right in my neighborhood but fat possum turned me on as much as anybody else yeah but um man
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it was a great all AG scene in me the punk rock we didn't really play punk rock but we definitely utilized the
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whole punk rock scene of tapes and hanging up fly handmade flyers and played the Omni New Daisy in Memphis
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every week they'd have their listing in the local paper the Memphis Flyer and at the bottom it say local bands needed and
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he just gave a place man Mike Glenn bless his heart gave just supported
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every genre it didn't matter you know uh gave the kids a place to play the antenna Club the classic Punk Rock Club
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that everybody played at um from Black Flag to Flaming Lips to G
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Allen uh but we' have all AG shows you know I couldn't get into the serious shows right but old enough the all age
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show all they had seen was awesome man and that's so important really teaches
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teaches you know here we have dark matter and like you know I love that you I love taking my kids to to shows say a
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third man in the bloom all AG shows are really important yeah
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so let's talk about some of the teachers that you had also um well my dad's Memphis uh partner Lee
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Baker he played second guitar with um Fury Lewis and he also had a psychedelic rock band called molok uh it was like
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very much like zezy top and like doing the thing but uh Lee Baker was a great
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inspiration one of the you know with guitar it's like you have electric and
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acoustic you know you got you got to give both sides love you know it's the ying and the Yang Neil Young's great at
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that Jimmy Paige Alvin Youngblood har he's really actually pointed it out as a
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concept of the balance of both but um Lee Baker was huge early influence R
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crter huge influence but then for a teenager man Shawn Lane put add in the
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paper oh yeah he would teach guitar lessons for 50 bucks an hour and I didn't know who Shawn was but my father
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showed it to me you go do that yeah and uh so sure enough I did I drove up in
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the little car and and I'd give him 50 bucks me hang out all day and um he showed me a lot uh so like
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Sean would say you know some players play two notes per string a lot of players play but he likes to play three
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notes per string you know he got my hand spread out which is still a worthy
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Endeavor to keep that Pinky from curling up you know yeah um but Sean he was just
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a genius his beautiful cat uh he would be like like cooking dinner watching a
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movie smoking a joint reciting the dialogue and singing the film score all at once you know uh and just and play me
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records make me mixtapes and um you know when I was a kid I used to try and play
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as fast as I can now I try to play as slow and spars as I can but Sean so so
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Soulful with it even when he was shredding and dude you know you learned
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from your elders but you also learn from your peers the competitiveness of like I grew up around Steve Solage he was my
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best friend now plays in The Hold Steady playing as Tommy cson band as well um
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and also Eric Gail has been kicking my ass since he was 14 you know I grew up in the same town where Eric G man he's
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so good and he's just just you know such a wonderful place right now his music is
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so fantastic but Shawn Lane was huge man and what he told me was very akin to
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something my mother told me she would say that if if you're trying to do something you're having to force it you're doing it wrong what Sean said the
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first time I went up there he's like what do you want to learn I was like speed and accuracy and he rolled his
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eyes like oh God but uh he's like if you're trying to
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do something and it's you find it hard just find easy way to do it and the
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biggest example was he loved this combination of fingers like he would not
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use this combination of fingers okay he said you know Paul Gilbert's great at it but it was never
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comfortable for sea so he used this so he would so he just kept these tied
27:37
together and and here I mean there's Jango there's Jimmy Hendrick there's Junior Kimber I mean these are you know
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home base and then the pinky he would use the pinky for everything else and you know he would
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stretch as far as he could for for his wide sweeps sheets of sound Sha isms but
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uh but that was a great example and and I use that all the time when I'm like arranging my guitar parts you know or
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finding the right key or the right open tuning or whatever you know like I Dwayne Burnside taught me that uh
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because I used to play Heavy strings he's said man it's supposed to sound effortless you know and it's good that have the illusion you don't want to
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fight you don't want to have people hear you fight your guitar you know but it was really good ex uh really good advice
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that Sean gave me and then later he hired us to to to learn his material and
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we would back him up our band would back him up in Memphis and having to learn he
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was he put out the powers of 10 and he started playing with yonas hborg and we
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had to learn the first record with yonas and the powers of 10 and having to learn that like open my ears wide open um and
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I had to like I'd been studying records my whole life but to learn that stuff
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really got intricate I I got better with the my ears and transcribing things and
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learning the minutia of of what music is doing and
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but we got burned playing with Sean and at that point I became fascinated with
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ARL Burnside in Mississippi Fred McDow yeah and I'd already been friends with OA Turner making records with OA Turner
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the Fe and drum musicians and I'd known about Fred McDow my whole life but I was
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fascinated with Fred and I took the ability to transcribe things that Shawn taught me to Fred and and that was what
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led to the North Mississippi Allstars in 96 was I just I couldn't take any longer
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I just couldn't write for the rock and roll band that we had anymore um
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everything I wrote was like super rootsy and simple and all I wanted to do was play Hill Country Music be ARL Burnside
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or Junior Kimbro or o toner or or Fred McDow but what Sean taught me I wouldn't
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have been able to really get as deep into Mississippi Fred or Burnside without the discipline that Shawn taught
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me and like opening up my ears yeah and it sounds like he he didn't just you know he didn't just give
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you a short lesson I mean it's kind of like you you hung with him and and he's you know kind of giving you
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philosophical things and and he's you know kind of showing you how to do it you're you're you're kind of sponging up
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all these you know he's a sweetheart dude we we'd sit we talk about shredding
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say but then Jimmy Hendricks play sit and play Hendrick and just like show me how Soulful Hendrick wasn't how he
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appreciated that and could do that as well but no yeah he played me you know he turned me on to Cannonball out Outer
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League turned me on to classical music so much Indian classical music it was so much man and Sean was a really great cat
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a great friend and we all yeah we did we hung out together a lot and the thing was it's funny when you're a teenager
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you think people are old but they're not like he didn't live dude that long he was really
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young yeah I was so fortunate and it's funny there was one night at Colonel
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Bruce Hampton show years later backstage at the Omni New Daisy theater and uh I was sitting me Colonel Bruce sha Lane
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and ARL Burnside and it was just the best I was seeing that last night like what what a
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moment uh of like two of my greatest influences you know and my dad used to
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say speaking of Burnside like just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy you watch that video of him playing
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jumper on the line what he's doing is so complex and the groove is so
31:41
ferocious um that night we were Bruce and Sean and I were joking about the deined
31:48
augminished and RL a RL and he was like is all e to me
31:55
yeah but that really sums up the whole experience yeah a lot of people know you of course
32:01
from the North Mississippi Allstars but also they know you from time you played in The Black Crows yeah how did that
32:06
come about man um we were we played with the crows a couple of times they we
32:13
opened up for the crows we opened up for him at Matt Square Garden when Mark Ford was back and became friends with Rich
32:20
and um we did a side project called Circle sound we played maybe three or four shows and um when quit and it took
32:29
a little bit of time but they hollered at me and I was like sure let's do it let's do it it was really fun yeah and
32:35
it was even great was like they start writing they wrote some great songs we did war paint and before the frost after
32:41
the freeze um and man the the project we did at Levon is really really really
32:48
cool they wrote some great songs it was really fun I did sign that NDA you know yeah I
32:57
did sign Gorman did not sign gotta but dude they were total for
33:03
the most part 95% of the time total professional gentleman really great and it was like playing at rock and roll
33:09
Orchestra you know it's fantastic yeah are they are they as were they as loud
33:14
on stage as you hear about dud God say what yeah [ __ ] spinn and I man I learned
33:21
from svin cuz he was moving and walking so much that if I played the low note of
33:27
the cord like a power cord it clashed with him like growing up a studio cat
33:33
you get really sensitive to to clams or clashes right you know I was like [ __ ] man I was like I mean I know a lot of
33:39
players would have just plowed through but I just can't help but try to make it sound as good as possible and you know
33:45
to my ear so I quit playing the the bottom the route and um letting him
33:50
handle that end of at least on cuz Lord knows Rich was hammering it down himself
33:55
St yeah and I asked dere TRS about that and he said yeah yeah yeah yeah he said when he was playing with Clapton he
34:01
never even hit the a string was supp to the E string but um yeah it was loud but
34:07
it was fun it took me a while to get my bearings I it was the beginning of my journey of of get playing
34:14
clean uh the only way I could figure out to cut through that sound was uh they
34:20
gave me it rich gave Chris a 335 and Chris gave it to me and uh my first 335
34:27
and then I had one SG I liked in between those two and I had a fuks that was 150
34:32
watts and I had a pedal board but pretty much just pluged straight in and and I
34:39
settled into like this clean sound that cut through to a fault really I should have been more varied uh you know like
34:46
it's a strat song and Telly song but you know you do it long enough you're like well that's what Mark did you know or that's what odd they did I'm just doing
34:53
my thing you know and Chris liked it cuz he was such a dead head um he liked the
34:58
the clean the the jury kind of cleaner and he liked just the improvisational
35:03
Explorations that we were going into so he didn't really care what it sounded like he just liked the energy you know
35:10
so I was getting away with a lot but it was appropriate you looking back on it
35:15
it but but whatever it takes you know like whatever it takes you to yeah then
35:20
you know I left the crows and I didn't know what I was going to do I just didn't want to play that music anymore I
35:26
was just burned on it and uh but thankfully Phil Le started calling yeah
35:32
so then the clean sound journey goes even deeper cuz thank God I'd heard the
35:39
Grateful Dead hanging out on the black R's bus nonstop but my whole life I was all Jimmy Hendricks and all my brothers
35:46
and we my friends and I would fight about it we appreciated the uh the
35:52
fruits of the of the parking lot to no end like Grateful Dead tour
35:58
you know supplied the whole our whole youth culture of you
36:04
know whatever recreational yeah uh situations we
36:09
needed but uh uh I always sidestep the music I just
36:16
all my friends listen to it fish and the Grateful Dead and I was always like very because I'm really easily influenced
36:21
yeah so very careful of what I listen to so all Hendricks and the brothers for me
36:27
and uh I remember tripping balls in my bedroom being 18 listening to that Tom
36:33
Dow did the remastered live at the Filmore box set CD yeah and I was like that's what I want to do with my life
36:39
you know and dude I should have dreamed bigger but anyway so so so you get into
36:47
this thing so yeah so with the crows you're you know to cut through all of a sudden it's like you know cuz if you do
36:53
the same kind of you know distorted thing it's like you're not going to cut through cuz it's like it's all taken up
36:59
the same frequency range so at least by being clean you have that attack and and everything else that you can uh that was
37:06
the only way I could get comfortable yeah oh then we did the acoustic
37:12
acoustic tours and I had a 125 Gibson old G with a really nice P90 in it that
37:17
was my the favorite my favorite yeah but yeah playing clean is great man I really
37:23
love it and then I had daughters two daughters and they have no tolerance for diring dirty guitar really no tolerance
37:30
for aggressive dirty guitar at all and I was like well thank God your mom liked it yeah otherwise otherwise you wouldn't
37:37
be here so they cleaned up my act too you know and I you know try to and also the
37:43
hearing damage of just so I can't the whole mid-range neck pickup Gibson
37:50
throwy feedback sound that I thrived on my whole life even playing clean with
37:55
the crows I would still get midrange feedback and sustain yeah cuz you know it's fun but man it turned on me man I
38:03
cannot tolerate it anymore I don't want to hear that at all those frequencies
38:09
hurt I'm really sensitive yeah so tell me how you got into you
38:15
know into production so how do you end up you know kind of starting to produce some records well I started the first
38:21
thing I ever did was um cuz I guess you're following your dad's footsteps yeah
38:28
the first thing I ever did was OA Turner uh and uh he was my we met when I was a
38:34
teenager we actually met the day I played that first show Hardley the Hardley came Playboys our family band's
38:40
first show his family band was playing and we became friends that very day um
38:46
and I would go and record him and then I had a little opportunity with my friend David Kat Nelson to put a record out so
38:52
we took our adap machines down and set them up in a in his barn and had mics out in the trees and so it started
39:00
producing it was that creative process really natural for me and we always had like a four track or little eight track
39:06
or little home studio so we were always recording and being the son of being
39:13
second generation third generation you know what you have to look out for is a sense of entitlement you know there's
39:20
like the youthful confidence that is part of rock and roll but you got to but
39:25
there is a definitely a thing really yeah of course I can do it yeah know let's do it you know but that's what being second generation anything is yeah
39:33
be sports or science or accounting or whatever because you've grown up with it
39:38
it's not it's not new it's like you're comfortable in it and you see that it's easy know if they can do it you know if
39:45
they can do it we can do it well also and and you've you've already seen how you know the the paths and and and the
39:50
way to get to places exactly it really helps yeah um but [ __ ] what was the initial
39:57
question so how you got into into producing oh yeah producing well it was
40:02
funny it was uh with the all stars we'd worked up the Mississippi long story
40:08
short Mississippi scene was so awesome in the mid to late 90s that we were
40:15
totally happy just touring the local SEC you know just booking our own little
40:21
shows and uh totally easily made enough money to support ourselves we lived in a single wide trailer the family Studio
40:30
property you know we had a barn a little studio in a barn and single wide trailer it was easy and just hanging out going
40:35
to Junior's juke joint every Sunday we'd race home Saturday night and get Chris cheu into into church Sunday morning and
40:42
we'd go to Junior Sunday night ARL Burnside these were musical families so
40:48
it's like the kimros the Turners and the the uh burnsides they were just like us
40:53
we became friends with all the Young Musicians it was fantastic IC I quit going to Memphis completely quit hanging
41:00
out with all of my um cronies that I grew up with totally focused on the Hill
41:05
Country and um so we worked up a set and we finally
41:12
made a deal we had to make a record and we wanted to record the music that we
41:17
had and our father was like you can't make a that's your live set he's like you can't make a record of that he's
41:23
like like he just did not believe in that at all he liked to record people be
41:29
it session players or bands playing music that they barely know he liked to capture them yeah that early yeah the
41:37
the energy of that when you yeah the Innocence there's still some ambiguity there of like what's going to happen
41:43
yeah even with the players while they're doing it totally he love manipulating that that energy spirit and getting in
41:49
there and we made a record in that era with him of songs that we didn't know
41:54
that well you know as like an experiment he said make take this one for me and let me have this one and then y'all do
42:00
whatever you want and then Alvin youngbl Hart booked dad in Memphis to do a uh
42:05
the first record there was a start of soul I can't remember um and uh so we knew dad would be in
42:12
Memphis so we booked we went in the studio while he was gone and recorded Shake an of shorty so we did it
42:18
ourselves so we started self- producing yeah uh and we would leap frog with Dad he'd produce one we'd produce one back
42:25
and forth back and forth family business pH that gets complicated that's problematic and complicated but
42:32
beautiful yeah and uh so we started at one point on the road I've
42:39
been on the road so long I was back at home in the zebra ranch with Dad working
42:44
and I was like yeah you know I used to think I want to grow up and be like you be a record producer you know he's like but I don't I I don't want to do that I
42:50
don't want to be in the studio all the time and he was like yeah you ain't got
42:56
it but that was probably what you needed I'll prove you wrong he's like
43:01
you ain't got it he's like you're too wishy-washy he's like to be a record producer you got to be able to make a split-second decision and stick to it
43:08
even if you're wrong yeah and I like even at this day like yo man that's just
43:13
I'm not I'm still not into that yeah I don't mind pivoting and adjusting but
43:18
that's how he was yeah like dude do not go into one of his projects and start uh
43:25
he did not handle Mutiny well yeah so so you start so even with like
43:34
these North Mississippi All-Star things you said we produced it my brother and I okay yeah and and you know who who took
43:41
on which roles as far as producing I mean who was I mean were you you know really you know equals did you did you
43:49
kind of divide up duties or no we just try to always find it's funny our band North Mississippi my my influences and
43:56
Cody's and influences are very different and when we come together we make this sound that we neither one of us would
44:02
make without the other you know and Cody's a great producer great engineer
44:07
and um but uh our friend one of our initial bass player friends from high
44:13
school he became an engineer at the University of Memphis and we went on the
44:18
road but he stayed with Dad and he's been running the zebra Ranch Kevin Houston and we've made all of our almost
44:25
all of our records of him yeah so we would work with him very much our heard father taught us that relationship a
44:31
producer engineer you know it's like we all grew into the of doing it ourselves more and more and more and more but he
44:38
very much adhered to that that template yeah the old school you know you have
44:44
the producer then you have the engineer not the producer engineer guy yeah and don't don't let a musician dare touch
44:50
the board you know or like overstep the bound like etiquette the whole thing you know very serious yeah so I was I was
44:57
like get out of way that's not you know yeah turn an EQ off yeah so how did you
45:02
start uh working with Samantha Fish Man Ruben Ruben Williams her uh manager is a beautiful cat really a a magic man of
45:11
making things happen and Reuben hired me um you know who really uh Jim Lauderdale
45:16
he I think he was the first to ask me um I would produce my friends you know and
45:23
and once F my father passed away in 09 you know so started doing it more and more and uh started producing my friends
45:31
and then Jim came to me and really helped you know and then I met the birds of Chicago because Jim Lauderdale is
45:37
he's very prolific I mean he's he's done so many albums and he's worked with so many producers and so you're going to
45:43
get a lot you're going to learn a lot working with a guy like that cuz he's seen so many different ways of doing things so fantastic he just liked our
45:50
Vibe he liked her studio in Mississippi yeah then I took him to Royal and we worked with Buu you know wow and he he
45:56
brought me here to Nashville to work at RCA so we had a really great run
46:01
collaborating yeah Jim's a beast man so he we were at the zebra Ranch he had Spooner oldum David Hood my brother and
46:09
I the engineer like it was an expensive session it was full on session and he had a voice memo of like a musical idea
46:15
and a title and I looked over at his lyric sheet and it was just the title
46:21
and he's just running this whole session like we're coming up with the arrangement yeah and he and he's improving too the whole the lyrics the
46:29
whole time he's improving wow and and we're keeping every take and every time he's just writing more and more and uh
46:36
just and then he comes back later and finishes the lyrics you know once we get the band track he's really good at it
46:42
but that was really cool to see the balls it takes like yeah I'm just going
46:48
to have a title and I'm going to riff every time we go through it and then I'm going to you know so I guess he would
46:54
come back then and do a final vocal then and was so really impressive was the
46:59
quality of the lyrics that he finished yeah with like really good like he really not just filling in the blank
47:06
he's a pro of the highest caliber he's been doing it forever how did you move to Nashville how did you move here man
47:12
we uh once we started dealing with school with our daughter um and then our
47:19
second daughter um we were commuting 40 minutes one way up to Memphis and back and
47:24
um and man we just could do anymore and we didn't want to move I'd lived in Memphis before but we didn't want to
47:29
move back to Memphis it would been a lateral move and um so we started looking around and we came here for
47:34
schools and and you know we didn't it took a while to settle into the school but what we did find was a a group of
47:42
light-minded people who had all come here looking for the same thing for their family yeah and it's a great place
47:49
for families man especially musical families yeah cuz like it's not like you know I'm gone all the time and it's not
47:55
it's a shared experience for my wife she's not the only mom there by herself or you know what I mean Etc it's very
48:02
much more of a common a lot of our crew now um aren't musical families but um
48:08
it's still everyone came here looking for a type of alternative uh type of then we started
48:14
homeschooling in in 19 before 2020 so we were ahead of the game now they're back in school but we' just been exploring
48:22
all and raising kids is tricky yeah it is it's not for the faint of
48:28
heart two daughters total different experience yeah which I'm thankful for
48:33
yeah if I had had two boys there would been no way to avoid constantly
48:39
comparing it to my experience with my brother Cody yeah but it's just all new territory and and they'd be finding
48:45
different ways to get into trouble too so yeah ways that that still that will surprise you yeah so you what did you
48:55
think you know cuz n nville I think I think it's pretty well known now that you know Nashville has so
49:02
many different musical styles and so many different players here that it's like you know you could do any kind of
49:07
session here because there's so many good players and and such did you did you feel pretty at home pretty quick
49:14
here man what really is fantastic is the infrastructure like if you whatever you need to do you can get it done here yeah
49:21
whatever you need to get fixed or like say back to 2020 whatever you need to sell
49:27
was going to buy it man I sold so much stuff in 2020 it was fantastic but um
49:32
you know I haven't tried to break into the I don't I've become such a like you
49:37
know an indulgent artist type of player you know like I can just do it I can do
49:43
like I've become a flavor player you know what I mean um there's no way I I
49:50
could get the job done if I had to go in and and you know have a pedal board and
49:55
whole arsenal like it's and like yeah man that's a I have so utmost respect
50:01
for those guys that's a completely different thing we're fantastic yeah it is great but th those guys have to be
50:07
kind of um vanilla is not the right word but it's like they just have to be able to
50:12
wear so many different hats and and and do so many different styles and sounds and gags and things like that that it's
50:18
just yeah back to JD Simo man you know he moved here to to break into the scene
50:23
I moved here for schools and infrastructure and a fantas fantastic airport love the airport God Jesus
50:31
direct flights everywhere yeah now oh it's fantastic yeah but JD like he lived
50:37
it he did sessions like he did he went in the hard way and and look at him man he's like so such an individual such a
50:44
beast man you let him free reign to do his own thing man how how did yall meet
50:51
I heard a reputation his reputation proceeding I started hearing about Simo
50:57
as one of the only bands and I was out west uh in the Bay Area and these young
51:03
kids rockers talking about Simo because they would break the 20 like one of the only bands that would jam for over 20
51:10
minutes break the 20 break the about yeah and then what's that mean back then
51:15
I was still on Instagram so I reached out and we became friends and and go over to his house and as soon as I met
51:22
he and Adam I just felt like oh man these are my dudes like yeah you know felt totally comfortable I've done a
51:29
couple of sessions a handful of sessions and that's cool but jamming down in JD's Studio man that's yeah Bonkers so when
51:37
did y all get the idea to do a you know to do a record together man personally
51:43
for me well musicians we have like orbits you know and like I was in John highest
51:49
orbit for a while or John madesi's orbit or Phil Le's orbit you know and Simo and I we became friends but then our orbits
51:58
separated then we came back together yeah and he called me to sit in at Analog was that a little monthly gig
52:03
that he had yes and I came in and sit in we had so much fun and I brought my wife and she was like yo he's great like you
52:10
should do more with him I was like yeah you're right he is great so she encouraged me and um and the and the gig
52:16
went so well we booked more gigs just for fun and then we just started recording we would just go write and
52:23
record it's so it's so effort L with him like literally we'll just like sit down
52:29
and whatever the first idea is will follow and if it's not hip Adam won't
52:35
play but if it's hip enough Adam will jump in the drummer yeah yeah and uh so
52:41
he's really the producer in my mind you know like he is the man behind the curtain because his Beats are so Sly and
52:49
and catchy and and like I said if if it's not hip he's not even going to you know just next you know he'll just wait
52:55
for us to fall to something cool yeah then JD will just I they asked me to sing just to uh particip I didn't want
53:03
to sing I just want I love working with great singers only reason I sing is just to to if there's songs that I've written
53:10
that I want to do or or just to do the repertoire that I want to play you know I've had to sing by default and that's
53:17
been a journey in and itself but man I've been so fortunate Chris Robinson Mavis Staples John hayatt Patty Griffin
53:24
you know JD Simon it's crazy the singers yeah I've been able to work with to for
53:30
music to really resonate and vibrate at its most heighten potential it's got to
53:35
be the human voice yeah that takes you to that place you know see all did the
53:41
the record and then y'all are touring right now or you know and you still have more dates coming up you know throughout
53:47
the the rest of 2024 and what's so fun JD got me back on the fuzz baby I had to
53:53
build a Simo board just just to have the old the old fuzz you got to man I
54:00
couldn't bring a switchblade to the the shotgun party yeah [ __ ] he'll take you down dude JD is a
54:09
beast man he is a beast that's right oh it's been so much fun cuz I
54:16
love fuzz like I said Hendrick to me is the Alpha and the Omega he's the best
54:21
but I never I always avoided strats cuz I didn't want to be as one of those guys yeah
54:26
you know it's like Charlie Christian Jimmy Hendricks you know he's my favorite but I don't try to sound like
54:32
him you know I can go you know I always end up going in there whenever I get fuzzy yeah but no it's so fun it's been
54:39
it's been really fun to bust out the fuzz [Music]
55:17
all right we're going to talk gear so one of the things that I found curious was now this this is probably a pretty
55:23
old interview with you but you said something to the fact that it was kind of like that whole lightning Hopkins
55:30
thing the acoustic guitar with the dearm pickup was kind of like this this kind of like tonal goal for you love that and
55:38
that's a it's a killer sound totally and um and I've got couple of
55:46
those I got one with flat wounds on it right now old harmony yeah um it's hadn't been converted yet plays like
55:52
hell but it sounds great with a with a Dian yeah and then I've got another one
55:58
that's high strung right now yeah another Dian and uh you know there's a
56:03
lot of the the cheap gretes have some killer little Sound Hole pickups in them
56:09
you know those little like 250 guitar $250 yeah those are killer I love those that's a really inspiring little parlor
56:16
guitar yeah and and when you said converted what do you mean by that when you have well say baxendale the harmony
56:22
conversion okay yeah where they where they take the ladder bracing out and they make it X braced huge fan of that
56:27
yeah I had a sovereign for a lot of years oh it's on the cover of my rock and roll blues record I'm in a cudu
56:33
patch holding up bendale conversion Sovereign with um uh with a Dian yeah
56:40
lightning Hopkins but you know I never took them on the road they're so microphonic and good God to plug one you
56:47
know into a DI that's be way that's way too hazardous yeah so so you've kind of
56:54
gotten into the the the kind of Straus solid body thing and you're it looks like you're using like these these wide
57:00
range kind of Lawler pickups yes the Lawler Regals the wide range and my
57:05
friend Steve silvage turned me on to a the parts Caster concept because man I
57:11
wanted always wanted to play a loud ass wild electric guitar um but have it set
57:19
up and felt like I was fingerpicking an acoustic like where it responded like an acoustic being finger picked and open
57:25
tuning and playing slide but I wanted and I wanted my slide to be able to like emulate like Hendrick's whammy bar that
57:33
that's what I went for for distorted slide yeah feedback slide I would always think about HX as whammy bar so so I
57:40
followed the Gibson route because it just made sense you know I had a 120
57:46
125t you know um etc etc my father's 175
57:51
from the ' 50s was fantastic um we designed the the LD the
57:56
Luther Dickinson it was a uh it was a 335 semih hollow with P90s and but you
58:03
know it was beautiful with a Bigsby for cter yeah but I I wasn't happy with the the
58:10
way it didn't it wasn't it didn't resonate the way I wanted to so we designed another one which tur into the
58:16
330 L it's black beautiful black fully Hollow full scale MH 30 335 with
58:24
humbuckers and a Bigsby now that guitar is a beast man if you can if you're down
58:29
to control the feedback yeah man especially tuned down half stuff to E flat that guitar sings Like a Bird and
58:37
um they they W were not able to put my name on it for Gib some politics reason political reasons at the time but anyway
58:44
it was like the the the like the opposite of the the Luther Dickinson 325
58:50
and after years and years years of Gibson svage turned me on to to um the
58:56
wide range pickups in a fender type of bolt-on guitar and um it changed my life
59:02
and you know like I said I was already looking for a cleaner sound and the The
59:07
Regals the um I love single quills but I can't be
59:12
running around dealing with the the static and the buzz and the hum you know but they're they're civilized they kind
59:19
of sound like a more civilized gold foil almost you know or like a Dian yeah they' got a really
59:26
clear uh quality that I really really like and the full the the fender scale
59:33
man it suits low tune to finger picking super I'm completely converted so my
59:39
friends and I started making Viber tone uh we did this one from scratch this is the Rufus this is the first one we're
59:46
building the second one right now we've been doing Parts Casters Of All Sorts
59:51
this is my open C vione it's just a yeah where are yall painting these things uh
59:58
here in town my friend Chris does it yeah you know um but we designed this
1:00:03
and built it from scratch and it's it's changed my whole trip man I still love Gibson and i' I've I've got my 335 the
1:00:10
one that the the crows gave me and my favorite SG and I take those on the Almond bets revivals you know once again
1:00:17
appropriate tool for the job yeah you know that's a that's a very it's perfect
1:00:23
but for my own thing I've been loving these yeah and then you you've used these little
1:00:30
pedal boards so I we've got a couple of them here but uh this first one that you're plugged into this would be kind
1:00:36
of like your ground zero pedal board where it's just a tuner and a and a boss
1:00:42
you know delay yes and and the one spot and the one spot yes this is this is
1:00:48
what I use for the North Mississippi Allstars for years I was hooked on the switchbone the discrete tuner out
1:00:55
beautiful round and polarity switches it's fantastic but with the allstars of
1:01:00
just keep downsizing and downsizing make easier simpler simpler simpler so I carry two I have two of these on stage
1:01:06
at any time so I got and the poly tune you can see in the sun yeah it's a game changer yeah you know how many times you
1:01:13
been at a festival like trying you can't see anything yeah and you're like hey can we get like a piece of cardboard or
1:01:19
something and Jesus get it where I can see the readout on my tuner so I can tune my guitar yeah and I love all
1:01:26
delays but the you know it's like it's like playing through Fender amps Marshall amps on your backline you know
1:01:32
it's like you can get them anywhere you know in Boss pedals you know you can get anywhere the dd7 the dd8 as long as I
1:01:38
can tap it into time um and this splits so this is
1:01:44
really all I need for the allstars because I use the the tremolo speed and the Reverb on the fender amps and then I
1:01:51
like to have one amp if I'm playing duo or Trio I like to have a clean amp and a dirty amp together yeah um I like the
1:01:58
dimension you know I want to hear if I'm going to have the the fuzz I want to hear the clean fundamental underneath it
1:02:05
you know and one will have Reverb and and triolo and the other one won't just spreads it out in a Trippy thing so this
1:02:12
has become and the one spot man because the tuner I can jump the power out so
1:02:17
I've just got one one spot and I'm jumping the power and then this is my split here yeah and and I always add two
1:02:24
of them on stage cuz you never know something could go sometimes the tuner goes out sometimes the the delay gets
1:02:30
microphonic sometimes I stomp on these so hard I go through them but if you're
1:02:36
going to do two amps man Blackberry Smoke boys turn me onto this yeah it's
1:02:42
good for one noise amp too but if you have two amps half the time one is going to be buzzing and this thing cleans it
1:02:47
up the morly humm termin humm that's that's a great it's a great tool best investment man I got a bunch of these
1:02:54
yeah so I've retired they old switch B but I still love it I I use it in the studio I use it all the time but I don't carry it anymore so what a uh we're
1:03:02
going to get on to your your your Simo pedal board here for the the duo stuff but first so so a lot of times are you
1:03:08
are you back lining stuff or are you taking amps with you so like when when you take your own amps what do you take category five Man category five these
1:03:16
guys we design this yeah and uh yeah I've got a trailer truck full of category five amps I use Lizzy which um
1:03:24
is like a there's a 800 side and 100 watt side it's kind of like a marshall 800 it's got a preamp wow and uh so
1:03:32
that's my dirty amp yeah and then I'll have a redesign the ld50 or the LD 100
1:03:37
which is kind of like it's kind of like a loud ass twin it's kind of like a loud Plexi but with tremolo and Reverb yeah
1:03:43
you know cuz I grew up playing Marshalls and fenders but Category 5 is so wonderful Samantha Fish Andrew osor T
1:03:49
benois yeah they all turn me on to them and it's beautiful beautiful company yeah they're great great people they
1:03:56
sound great and they're so useful and helpful on the road so that's what I have in the truck and then I'll backline
1:04:01
a Fender amp and lately I've been using a Mesa Boogie I took the I get been asking for a Lone Start really nice
1:04:08
clean sound the compliments the fender clean sound well and then the dirty you
1:04:13
know there's a lot of different textures you cuz for playing slide I found that it really does help to have some meat on
1:04:20
the bone you know some some dirt uh otherwise just gets so glassy yeah know
1:04:27
so so what amps are you taking out with Simo on the on the duo tour let me see
1:04:32
uh maybe the LD combo or but that's been backline too
1:04:37
we'll just get uh he likes a Princeton I like deluxe I like more Headroom than he does he likes the speakers to to to Sag
1:04:45
and and break up and me I like I still have a I'm more comfortable playing
1:04:50
clean than fuzzy so I I like the headro I play really soft if you know actually
1:04:56
it's all based on like with the crows with 150 watt amp or like with my brother and I with the North Mississippi
1:05:02
we have loud gear but we've finally gotten to where we like if the gear if
1:05:07
this is 100% we're down here at 50 or 75 and I'll only get really loud a couple
1:05:13
of times and night just to show people it's kind of fun because I just like reach back and like like yeah but I mean
1:05:20
I grew up playing at 110 yeah you know playing on 11 for decades but I just
1:05:27
don't do it anymore I play really soft my my hands are so weird like I'm double jointed wow yeah yeah push
1:05:36
that go that's it just collapses no strength in my hands and yo
1:05:43
the iPhone has destroyed my thumbs everybody do not use your [ __ ] thumbs
1:05:49
on the devices it's called Dr surveyance Teno citis started with blackberries and and Nintendo I will woke up one day I
1:05:56
couldn't make I couldn't play I couldn't make a fist this tenant right here just clamp shut yeah disaster Man
1:06:04
Thumbs but anyway all that to say I play really light so then with uh with JD on the duo
1:06:11
thing you you had to make up another board cuz you needed something with fuzz on it so so let's let's let's show that
1:06:18
well I got the crazy Horus which is a fantastic out of Austin yeah um and my
1:06:23
friend Spencer Ross makes all these pedals the whole Simo record is the the
1:06:29
sross FX uh Hill Country fuzz that's but um I took this one the Bumble the Bumble
1:06:36
ODS on the road and then the octron I've been using for years really really nasty
1:06:42
octave pedal um you know up down and and in the center and then a delay here this
1:06:49
modular I wouldn't I could have a third amp splitting here that would be that Shan Lane would do that yeah split
1:06:57
multiples but with Simo I'm just splitting modular last
1:07:03
tour I came out of the tone bone into here just to keep the tuner out of the
1:07:09
signal tuners do definitely yeah they they're a necessary
1:07:14
evil but it's it's nice to get them out of the chain it really is yeah I one of my dumbest dumbass stupid jokes of all
1:07:22
time was Derek Trucks for a certain for a per period of time he was had a rack mount tuner up above his amp I was like
1:07:29
damn D I just can't figure out how you're getting in into the tuner Man how he was
1:07:36
like yeah oh true bypass yeah that's right he unplugs the amp plugs into the
1:07:43
tuner the up plugs it back in that and that did have a profound effect on you
1:07:49
know like this is kind of modular you know yeah try to keep it as clean as possible so we are we going to look
1:07:56
let's look underneath the uh the the Simo board the DU board so we can uh see
1:08:02
this so so this is this is the new guy this is the xp5 that you've got under there cleverly covered up sorry so but
1:08:09
you know you you got it in there you got it taped in but this this is a you know a new a new thing for us and so it's
1:08:16
it's isolated but it's got five outputs and so it really keeps the uh the noise
1:08:21
level down and everything and it's so good for that yeah see now that now it works you didn't have it plugged
1:08:29
in operator erir yeah yo I'm so uh I've
1:08:34
got no muscle memory with this new board because I've been playing without a board for years I mean I've been using
1:08:39
just this for years so with Simo it's like it's
1:08:45
like this story when I took the mushrooms with Chris at the Filmore with the black crows I was like oh my god
1:08:52
dude it's like the music was not a problem but the switching guitars the pedal board [ __ ] that was like that was
1:08:57
not inspiring yeah let us let us hear the Let Us hear the uh the different
1:09:02
fuzzes real quick yeah so with Simo I we're we're sitting down for the most
1:09:09
part which is really fun because I get to get down here and get all yeah flavor rific with the petals the Bumble
1:09:18
ODS we turn the clean down so like [Music]
1:09:24
guess like I said I like to have a clean and a dirty so I'll just turn the clean down
1:09:29
[Music]
1:09:45
but the octron by itself [Music]
1:10:05
love that way that thing sounds man it's so gangster [Music]
1:10:35
the Crazy Horse got going on [Music]
1:10:56
[Music]
1:11:15
[Music]
1:11:21
[Music] m
1:11:27
that's all of them yeah it's really cool the the two amp thing and having kind of the fuzz going through one and having
1:11:33
the tremolo and verb on the other one is just that's a that's a cool sound and a a cool way of dealing with that because
1:11:39
it's like when you put fuzz through like trimone Reverb it gets wacky but when you when you've got the clean that still
1:11:46
kind of gives you the impact of that but then you got the fuzziness that's a really that's a that's great thank you very much yeah I I don't do that with
1:11:53
Simo I don't do it when there's two guitars but anytime uh you know it's a Duo retri solo Duo retre I love the
1:12:00
dimensional it's funny hearing bukovac I mean my God man he's so much wisdom you
1:12:05
know but uh he talks about Peds and he says he doesn't like to hear the natural guitar coming through the distortion
1:12:12
pedal um but that's one of the things where I'm like yeah well I like it I
1:12:17
like the dimension you know but um and it's cool because it doesn't matter how
1:12:23
like uh how what's the word how how mutated the note gets or how not muffled
1:12:31
but how I'm sorry lost I lost how effective and such coffee yeah
1:12:38
Coffee espresso so you uh so you've got the the tour going on with JD you're
1:12:45
going to do that and what else do you have going on in 2025 um man I've had a so I turned 50 last
1:12:52
year and my resolution was was to finish all the projects I had on the back burner yeah and man it's been a bunch of
1:13:00
stuff is coming out my my children's record came out with that on the cover
1:13:05
um magic music for family folks I made with my kids for my kids um mainly songs
1:13:11
that my dad taught me so that's a cool that was a cool one the first one I finished cuz it had been just simmering
1:13:18
uh for years and years and years um the JD record came out but we made that fast we weren't even trying to make a record
1:13:24
we were just having fun fun yeah um I have an Ambient Drone kind of record I made with my friend David Katz Nelson
1:13:30
called gravel Springs um Crows Nest meditations uh just last week I made a
1:13:37
record with uh I did a live recording with medeski and Johnny vidakovich and Dominic Davis down um in this Museum in
1:13:45
Ocean Springs Mississippi and that came out last week it's called Mississippi murals beautiful uh orchestral no not
1:13:53
orchestral but instrumental uh project and medeski really showcased on that playing B3 and piano so those
1:14:00
have all come out and because I finished some last year yeah and uh that really
1:14:06
felt good and next year 25 is the 25th anniversary of the North Mississippi
1:14:13
debut uh shake hands of shorty so we've been so that's the problem with homemade guitars man they just can't can't our
1:14:20
logos can't we can't keep nothing nice man fck screws of me you got to have a screwdriver handy always yes you always
1:14:28
got to I learn that from Prince man you get the washer yeah dude that's been a
1:14:33
game changer anyway uh so we're new doing the new All-Star record called still shaking nice yeah and couple
1:14:41
originals but also a lot of Hill Country we got uh Dwayne Burnside featured on
1:14:47
there Our Man Ray Ray who's been playing with us Joey Williams from the blond
1:14:52
boys Alabama who's been playing with us wow it's a really fun record so that's next
1:14:58
year Well Luther thank you so much for sitting down with us my pleasure it was
1:15:03
a real pleasure and thank you and you all need to go out and see Luther whether it's with the JD or with the
1:15:09
North Mississippi Allstar just go out and see Luther play thank you