Luther Dickinson

The North Mississippi Allstars have returned. And while they look back fondly on the 25th anniversary of their first album, Shake Hands with Shorty, they refuse to rest on their laurels. Still Shakin’ shows the band looking back, looking forward, movin’, groovin’, and evolving. Luther Dickinson talks guitars, experimentation, and how women changed his guitar tone. What’s the connection between your Shake Hands with Shorty and the new one? It’s the 25th anniversary of Shake Hands with Shorty. At first, I was thinking, “Let’s do a vinyl boxed set.” But then I thought, “Man! Let’s just record some new stuff in celebration!” Part of what’s so inspiring about doing this is our bandmates – guitarist Joey Williams and multi-instrumentalist Rayfield “Ray Ray” Holloman. They bring so much to the table, and I wanted to feature them. The cool sounds of Ray Ray and the blues-gospel licks from Joey rubbing against your slide creates a tasty recipe. Ray Ray is playing bass and pedal steel. He plays guitar, as well – he’s Eminem’s guitar player. He’s also Robert Randolph’s cousin, so he’s got that sacred-steel flavor, and his pedal-steel work is so profound. The solos he composed are so deliberate. His work ethic blows me away. Joey plays rhythm guitar in a gospel quartet. His playing beautifully harkens back to our first record. Our first bass player was Chris Chew, who was a Southern Baptist church bass player. It’s special when you have these young psychedelic rock dudes working with gospel musicians (laughs). It’s a unique chemistry that we’d veered away from over the years. So it was perfect timing to nod back to that. You and Joey have a beautiful musical relationship, weaving guitar lines without stepping on each other. Joey is a really good freestyler. He gets in there and floats. He said playing with us reminded him of being a kid and playing with his dad and all his friends in the basement doing gospel jams. He’s such a great weaver (laughs). It’s my newfound joy of playing with other guitar players. I had to grow into, find the right cats, and get into the right space myself to be able to do it. Which guitars did you use? Electric-wise, it’s mainly been guitars I’ve been making with friends of mine. We started making guitars in 2020. Those were hard times. I sold almost all my Gibsons and was selling enough s**t every month to pay the mortgage. Easy come, easy go. I still have some great guitars, and the ones I had from when I was a kid, which I got from my parents. But most of all, my tastes had changed. That neck pickup, hollow body, fat midrange sound has turned on me, and it hurts my ears. I do not want to hear it, much less play it. My friend Steve Selvidge, from the band The Hold Steady, turned me on to the Fender Wide Range humbuckers. It changed my life! We use the Lollar version, which are called Regals. He gave me a partscaster that he built with Regals, and it changed my life, so my friends in Nashville started making partscasters. I make ’em, I play ’em, and I sell ’em. We’ve sold 11 so far. We cut bodies and necks and make ’em from scratch. What was your main electric? The Vibratone Rufus. It’s named after my grandfather and looks like a cross between a Hound Dog Taylor guitar and a Peavey T-90 (laughs). It’s a modern pawn shop classic. My Harmony Bobkat also makes some appearances. Anytime you hear lead slide, that’s not pedal steel, that’s that Bobkat. What inspires you to try new things? Having daughters. As soon as my first daughter was part of the scene, she responded to female singers. It totally changed my listening habits, my output, and what I wanted to do. I started working with more female singers. If we hear some Van Halen, Hendrix, or any aggressive, loud, distorted guitars, we go, “Uggghhh!” It’s a good thing their mom likes it (laughs). Between having girls, their taste in guitar tones, quitting the Black Crowes, and working with the late Phil Lesh, I cleaned up my tone. Thank God Phil Lesh hired me! I didn’t grow up playing The Grateful Dead; I had to learn it, and he was such a great teacher. His community was a safe space where I could learn to play comfortably clean. For decades, I relied on the distortion. What’s next? I have a solo record coming out featuring this great singer named Datrian Johnson. – Oscar Jordan This article originally appeared in VG’s August 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.