Dinosaurs Run in Circles
Most artists slow down by the time they reach Social Security
eligibility, but Jim Dickinson has headed the other way. For decades,
Dickinson recorded his own music sporadically while focusing on other
artists — either as a producer or heavyweight sideman. But
now, Dickinson has released three solo albums in four years, all for
the local label Memphis International.
These records are not uniform in sound or quality, but they are of a
piece, reflecting Dickinson’s song-collector bona fides and long, deep
ties to a varied roots-music history few living musicians connect with
as personally.
Recorded essentially as a jazz/blues trio album with Dickinson on
piano and Sam Shoup and Tom Lonardo providing support on stand-up bass
and low-key drums, Dinosaurs Run in Circles lacks the vibrantly
communal musicality that animated Dickinson’s career-best Memphis
International debut, Jungle Jim & the Voodoo Tiger. And even
when it tries, it can’t quite match the growling swagger of the best
parts of Killers From Space.
On the surface, the album comes off as almost too laid-back; you
have to play it pretty loud to really hear it or risk it slipping into
background music. What it does have is a loose, spirited tone, a
charmingly flat sound, and a palpable intimacy as Dickinson, Shoup, and
Lonardo work their way around a batch of vintage tunes. These songs
— associated with artists such as Johnny Mercer, Ray
Charles, and Louis Jordan — comprise pre-rock genres such as
jump blues, shuffles, and crooner pop and are urbane even at their
grittiest. Dinosaurs Run in Circles is durable, growing in
appeal through multiple listens, and it enlarges the evidence of
Dickinson’s mastery.
Dickinson isn’t as well known as Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson (who
have enjoyed similar late-career artistic boons), but as an unfussy
musical keeper of American pop- and folk-song traditions, this trio of
Memphis International albums puts him in the same conversation. (“Easy
Street,” “The Gypsy,” “Save the Bones for Henry Jones”)
Grade: A-