The return of world boogie.

Byline: Carolyn Lamberson The Register-Guard

A album called "Electric Blue Watermelon" doesn't sound as if it would be about death.

Play the latest disc from the North Mississippi Allstars and you'd never guess it's an album born of mourning. It doesn't sound like a dirge.

Instead, it's the band's brand of "world boogie,' a rocking, bluesy, country record that has a lot of jammy undertones.

For Allstars frontman Luther Dickinson, the recent years have seen a lot of death.

Lee Baker, a guitarist and longtime friend of Dickinson's father, producer Jim Dickinson, was murdered in 1996.

Otha Turner, the last surviving master of the Mississippi back-country fife-and-drum tradition, died in 2003.

And on Sept. 1, Hill Country bluesman R.L. Burnside died in a Memphis hospital.

"Electric Blue Watermelon," released Sept. 6, spends a lot of time looking back, Dickinson said from the road.

`It just kind of emerged as what the record was about, the heart of the record,' Dickinson said. `I started writing this record when Otha Turner passed, and I definitely was dealing with the loss, not only Otha but other people from home, like Lee Baker, a friend of my dad's who was mur- dered.'

Not only did Turner help inspire the record, he contributed. The last song, `Bounce Ball,' is taken from a recording of Dickinson, Turner and Turner's family playing an instrumental fife-and-drum melody.

Two other songs, `Teasin' Brown" and "Hurry Up, Sunrise," feature Turner's lyrics.

`We'd just finished our last record (`Tate County Hill Country Blues') when Otha passed, and it kind of shook me up,' Dickinson said. `It made me rethink what we should be doing and who we are and what makes us unique.

`I grabbed all these tapes I had of us sitting on his porch, sitting and drinking and talking and singing and playing guitars. I went through and transcribed Otha's improvised lyrics. I wrote them all down and organized them into three songs, and two of them made it on the record.

`I was trying to extend the relationship and make the most of it,' Dickinson said. "That was a great relationship. He was like a best friend and a grandfather.'

Love and the extended family

The Allstars know all about family.

Luther Dickinson formed the band in 1996 with his younger brother, drummer Cody, and bassist Chris Chew. The band's most recent records have been producer by the Dickinson patriarch.

Not that the elder Dickinson needs the nepotism. He played piano on the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers," and has worked on albums by Aretha Franklin, Ry Cooder, Petula Clark, Ronnie Milsap and Carmen McRae, to name a few.

As a producer, he helmed the Big Star classic "Third/Sister Lovers," and he has continued to perform with Big Star frontman Alex Chilton. He produced the Replacements' "Pleased to Meet Me" - which incidentally featured the single "Alex Chilton" - as well as projects from Jason and the Scorchers, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, John Hiatt, Mudhoney, G. Love and Special Sauce and others.

On "Electric Blue Watermelon," Luther Dickinson said his father had a shared vision with the band.

`Lee Baker, the guitar player we're singing about (in `Horseshoe'), lived on Horseshoe Lake, Ark. He was my father's friend and the guitar player in his band.

`When Lee was murdered, it created a huge disturbance in the force, if you want,' Dickinson "My dad and his friends are still not recovered from it.

`At the end of the whole project, speaking of `Horseshoe,' he said that working on the record and that song in particular, it helped him come to grips with what happened.'

When the Allstars bring their world boogie to the Eugene Celebration today, fans can expect to hear a lot of "Electric Blue Watermelon."

`We're definitely going to try to bring a good time,' Dickinson said. `We've been saving all our new songs for the record to come out. So we're going to play all our new songs, and it's so much fun to play the new songs.

`People are really responding well to them.'

The album was recorded more like a live record, Dickinson said.

`It's is a very honest record,' he said. "It's very easy to play.

`In the past, we've made songs in the studio that were impossible to play live. We knew we were doing it, but we were just experimenting.'

CONCERT PREVIEW

North Mississippi Allstars

When: 10:30 p.m. today

Where: City Hall Stage, across Eighth Avenue from Eugene City Hall

How much: Free with Eugene Celebration admission

CAPTION(S):

The North Mississippi Allstars play tonight at the festival's largest venue, Eugene City Hall.