''Electric Blue Watermelon'' is the fourth studio album by American band

North Mississippi Allstars North Mississippi Allstars is an American blues and southern rock band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is currently composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, lowebow, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, elec ...

. It was released on September 6, 2005, through ATO Records. The recording sessions took place at Ardent Studios and at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, and at Zebra Ranch in

Independence, Mississippi Independence is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Tate County, Mississippi, United States. The settlement is approximately south of Cockrum and east of Coldwater along Mississippi Highway 305. It was first named as ...

. The album was produced by

Jim Dickinson James Luther Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Biography Dickinson was born in Li ...

. It features contributions from

Lucinda Williams Lucinda Gayl Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, ''Ramblin' on My Mind (Lucinda Williams album), Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and ''Happy Woman Blues'' (198 ...

, Robert Randolph,

Al Kapone Alphonzo Jerome Bailey (born November 5, 1971), better known by his stage name Al Kapone, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. Al Kapone is known principally for his underground success in the Memphis hip hop scene in the 1990s, and h ...

Othar Turner Othar "Otha" Turner (June 2, 1907 – February 27, 2003) was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum blues tradition. His music was also part of the African-American genre known as Hill country blues. Ea ...

Jimbo Mathus James H. Mathis Jr. (born August 1967), known as Jimbo Mathus, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and member of the gypsy jazz, hot jazz band Squirrel Nut Zippers. Early life and career He was born in Oxford, Mississippi to Jimmy Math ...

, Ben Nichols, Jimmy Davis, Jim Crosthwait, Jim Spake, Steve Selvidge, Susan Marshall, Mary Lindsay Dickinson, John C. Stubblefield, R.L. Boyce, Sharde Turner, Aubrey Turner, Rodney Evans, Otha Andre Evans, Whitney Jefferson, Robert "Tex" Wrightsil, Harold "Sundance" Thomas, Roger Lewis, Kevin Harris, Efrem Towns, Terence Higgins, Julius McKee, Revert Andrews, Jamie McLean, and Jim Dickinson. The album made it to number 180 on the ''Billboard'' 200, topped the Top Blues Albums and peaked at number 8 on the

Heatseekers Albums The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

. It was also nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album was awarded from 1988 to 2011 and from 2017 onwards. Until 1992 the award was known as Best Contemporary Blues Performance and in 1989 was awarded to a song rather than to an album. The award was ...

at the

48th Annual Grammy Awards The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2006, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning from October 1, 2004, through September 30, 2005. Irish rock band U2 ...

, but lost to

Delbert McClinton Delbert McClinton (born November 4, 1940) is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist. From his first professional stage appearance in 1957 to his most recent national tour in 2018, h ...

's ''

Cost of Living The cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living for an individual or a household. Changes in the cost of living over time can be measured in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare t ...

''.

Critical reception

''Electric Blue Watermelon'' was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 79, based on eleven reviews. Tom Sinclair of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' found the album "it's sort of like

The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969. Its founding members were brothers Duane Allman (slide guitar, lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards), as well as Dickey Betts ( ...

jamming with the

P-Funk All Stars Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American musical collective, music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton (funk musician), George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament (band), Parliame ...

, with

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...

guesting".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Steve Leggett praised the album, saying: "what they really are is a 21st century version of a good old Southern rock band who know all too well that the hills of North Mississippi are alive with real folk music". Adrien Begrand of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' said that the album "expertly combines elements of the previous three albums with a few cool new additions, making for not only the most diverse concoction of blues and rock the band has recorded to date, but also their best album so far". Veteran critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

said: "They've learned to lilt, or else agreed to let their daddy show them how" and selected two songs: "Hurry Up Sunrise" and " Bang Bang Lulu".

Track listing

Personnel

Luther Dickinson Luther Andrews Dickinson (born January 18, 1973) is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi Allstars and the son of record producer Jim Dickinson. He is also known for being a guitarist for The Black Crowes. He hosts '' Guita ...

– guitar, vocals * Cody Dickinson – drums * Chris Crew – bass, vocals * Jim " East Memphis Slim" Dickinson – producer, guest artist * Pete Matthews – recording * Stewart Whitmore – editing *

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and distri ...

– mastering * Tom Foster – artwork * Emily Philpott – design, layout *

– guest artist * Robert Randolph – guest artist *

– guest artist *

– guest artist * Ben Nichols – guest artist * Jimmy Davis – guest artist * Jim Crosthwait – guest artist * Jim Spake – guest artist * Steve Selvidge – guest artist * Susan Marshall – guest artist * Mary Lindsay Dickinson – guest artist * John C. Stubblefield – guest artist * R.L. Boyce – guest artist * Sharde Turner – guest artist * Aubrey Turner – guest artist * Rodney Evans – guest artist * Otha Andre Evans – guest artist * Whitney Jefferson – guest artist * Robert "Tex" Wrightsil – guest artist * Harold "Sundance" Thomas – guest artist * Roger Lewis – guest artist * Kevin Harris – guest artist * Efrem Towns – guest artist * Terence Higgins – guest artist * Julius McKee – guest artist * Revert Andrews – guest artist * Jamie McLean – guest artist

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2005 albums Albums produced by Jim Dickinson North Mississippi Allstars albums