Cody Dickinson – Homemade
Sometimes a good collection of songs is just a good collection of songs. There isn’t much to analyze or assess. Cody Dickinson is a Grammy-nominated roots/blues/rock musician — also a founding member of the North Mississippi Allstars & drummer. Those credentials alone should verify the material should be at least entertaining & they are.
Cody plays all the instruments on this set & produced the showcase that dives into various pools of southern soul, West Coast boogie-woogie hill country blues & pop. But tags aside & many listeners couldn’t tell the difference between one or the other – people generally listen to what their ear finds attractive. Cody manages that well. The CD has lots of well-manicured, basically good melodies.
It’s almost like getting a new NMA album as a bonus since it’s 10 Homemade (Drops June 21/Strong Place Music/34:34) tracks that deliver & are strong enough to survive on their own. Particularly interesting are “Goodbye Albuquerque, Tuesday Night,” & “Blackout Curtains,” – both driving performances with a little catchy 70s rock group instrumentation stylistically applied. Many song themes focus on family & while this is Cody’s solo address the quality, he brings to each song is typical of the North Mississippi Allstars. You see, drummers have musical ideas too.
Listeners who enjoy a good jam will find “Easy,” a somewhat Grateful Dead instrumental workout mid-song that cooks decisively. If that isn’t enough, the two follow-up cuts “As Fast As It Comes,” & “Home Wrecker” also have that Dead attraction. This is no imitation since to achieve something like this you have to be fully immersed in the genre they created & Cody brings his own impassioned, incisive shadings to each song. There’s muscle in the melodies & stamina in the performance.
Stepping away from the Dead comparisons Cody proves his metal by going full throttle vocally on the rocker “Worldwide.” It has both a Z.Z. Top squeeze musically & authentic Dictators rock n’ roll tonality that’s fiery & convincing. This Cody is crazy good. Excellent song.
A generous attempt at some Gospel-spiritual music concludes the set with “Can’t Feel At Home.” Though Cody is no Elvis with this type of music his voice as the song proceeds does possess lots of feeling & with the addition of Tikyra Jackson, Cody creates a striking arrangement within the confines of the genre & pulls it off admirably. Sometimes you have to give someone a chance. Cody succeeds. I don’t recommend an entire album of spirituals, but this will do nicely as a coda.
Highlights – “Goodbye Albuquerque, Tuesday Night,” “Blackout Curtains,” “Easy,” “As Fast As It Comes,” “Home Wrecker,” “Worldwide” & “Can’t Feel At Home.”
Musicians – Cody Dickinson (all) & Tikyra Jackson (vocals on “Can’t Feel At Home”).
Color image courtesy of Bob Bayne & Cody’s Facebook. CD @ https://codydickinson.com/
Enjoy our interview with Cody here: Key to the Highway: Cody Dickinson
