PROFILES

Cody Dickinson

His music: Cody Dickinson, 32, was born into the music business. The Southaven, Miss., resident is the son of producer/session musician James Luther Dickinson. He and his elder brother, Luther, formed their first band in elementary school before launching the critically acclaimed DDT with bassist Paul Taylor. In the mid-1990s, the Dickinson brothers found success in the blues, pop and roots-rock amalgamation, North Mississippi Allstars. Cody, one of the world’s only electric washboard players, has appeared with the likes of Medeski, Martin & Wood and Widespread Panic. More recently, the multi-instrumentalist has ventured out on his own, launching the digital-only Diamond D music label and playing lead guitar in the blues-meets-hard rock Hill Country Revue.


In $5 Cover: The lanky musician plays the role of the seducer, employing the electric washboard as his siren call. Featured song: “Psychedelic Sex Machine Theme.”


In $5 Cover Amplified: Accompanied by fellow washboard player/“psychedelic warrior” Jimmy Crosthwait, Dickinson traverses traditions, time and space.


On Memphis music: “Growing up (here) was such a special experience, because the music culture is so deeply rooted. The farther I have to travel to play, the more interested people are in where I’m from.”


Latest news: Make A Move, Hill Country Revue’s debut full-length CD, was released May 12. In July, they kick off a six-week tour with Dave Matthews Band.


--Andria Lisle


Hill Country Revue's website



Follow us on:

$5 Cover Amplified Summary:

Intimate, thoughtful, always entertaining and often formally daring, the 12 documentaries that comprise the anthology "$5 Cover Amplified" reveal a modern Memphis music scene that is as creative, passionate and vibrant as in the city's commercial heyday, when Elvis, Isaac Hayes and Al Green demonstrated that visionary art and popular culture could be inseparable as the 'A' and 'B' sides of a vinyl record.

Produced as a complement to Craig Brewer's episodic MTV drama series/ new media experiment, "$5 Cover," the "Amplified" series of documentary portraits chronicles the rousing art, uncertain careers and sometimes problematic home lives of a diverse, distinctive and often eccentric group of Memphis music-makers.

Mesmerizing Valerie June croons confessional lyrics from beneath a Medusan tangle of dreadlocks that's as thick as her family ties and her musical roots. The puckish Tommy Chong-meets-Pippi Longstocking "clown prince of rap," Muck Sticky, proves to be as dedicated to the welfare of his mother and sister as to his own pursuit of happiness. Punk rock pioneer Jack Oblivian, who plays to sell-out nightclub crowds in Europe, makes ends meet in Memphis by cleaning houses. "Crunk" hip-hop artist Al Kapone is shown to be a tough but loving father, bringing new urgency to the concept of rapper as "role model." Troubadour of heartbreak Harlan T. Bobo is portrayed impressionistically, through stop-motion animation, allegorical fantasy and other conceits.

Whatever the focus or style, the direction of Alan Spearman, an award-winning photographer/filmmaker with The Commercial Appeal, ensures that each segment is as visually assured as it is musically irresistible. "$5 Cover Amplified" was co-produced by Spearman, Andria Lisle and John Hubbell, and edited by Eileen Meyer; their familiarity with the Memphis "scene" ensures unprecedented authenticity as well as access.

John Beifuss- The Commercial Appeal