Up and Rolling by Allstars fun for all

Kacy & Clayton honor roots

North Mississippi Allstars, “Up and Rolling” (New West) The blues is alive and kicking, and rock ain’t dead either. Thank the North Mississippi Allstars for that reminder.

Luther and Cody Dickinson’s latest album is a communal jam band amalgam that embraces a couple of creaky old musical genres and still sounds like 2019 because everyone involved seems to be having so much fun, and there’s no expiration date on that.

“Up and Rolling” ranges from roadhouse blues (“Out on the Road”) and festival rock (“Lonesome In My Home”) to disco funk (“Bump That Mother”) and a socially conscious fist pumper (“Living Free”). The band connects Muddy Waters with Prince on the salacious grinder “Peaches,” where a stepladder never sounded so sexy, and seeks forgiveness with a gospel swing on “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” More heavenly yet is the Mavis Staplesled tent revival stomper “What You Gonna Do?”

The Dickinson brothers spotlight a handful of guests, and even Jason Isbell has the blues. He and Duane Betts help turn Little Walter’s “Mean Old World” into a 12-bar boogie with an Allman-esque coda straight from Fillmore East.

Electric guitars abound, and Cody is a marvel on drums, which is a big reason the music finds grooves sure to make hips shake and toes tap. It’s all as loose as a collar on a 90-degree day, and a good way to work up a sweat.

Dickinson

By Steven Wine

Kacy & Clayton, “Carrying On” (New West) Second cousins Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum hail from a remote part of Saskatchewan, if that’s not a redundancy, and their new album package helpfully includes a map to show just where that is. Talk about high and lonesome.

The music reflects their roots, with spare arrangements that suggest wide-open spaces, modest tempos to echo the pace of life, and the sort of dark humor common to latitudes where nights are long. It’s a distinctive brand of North Americana that Kacy & Clayton have mastered on their latest album, “Carrying On.”

The duo is again produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who knows how to showcase their strengths — Linthicum’s remarkable electric guitar work, Anderson’s arresting alto and top-notch original material. There are songs to clear the dance floor, with death, dying and the grim reaper among the topics, and the tunes benefit from smart, often funny lyrics always crafted with care.

The melodies allow Anderson to shine, and Linthicum’s guitar is the other compelling voice. The cousins complement each other beautifully, whether in counterpoint, in unison or taking turns. His smear of judiciously chosen notes mixes twang and tremolo with hints of pedal steel and Celtic folk.

Solos are brief and so are the songs, because time is short. “We’re all dying alone,” Anderson sings. But this music deserves a long life.

Nick Waterhouse, “Nick Waterhouse” (Innovative Leisure)

“There’s an exit/and there’s a way out/the two just ain’t the same” is a typical lyric from Nick Waterhouse’s self-titled fourth album, a collection that stays true to his particular style and sets images and stories of 21st-century noir to soul and R&B sounds rooted in the 1950s and ‘60s.

“Undedicated,” the source of the words above, could be sung by the protagonist of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” as he nears the end of the line - or, let’s be optimistic, a new start - and the tune’s baritone and tenor saxes help to paint a grim horizon: “Feel that old fear ... that nobody’s gonna remember your name.”

With an insistent little riff and dangerous guitar by Bart Davenport, “El Viv” is the kind of instrumental that helps understand why bands like The Ventures became so influential without having to sing a single word, while “Which Was Writ” is just as cool, its skeletal arrangements relying on a Telecaster, a baritone guitar and slightly reverbed vocals.

Waterhouse does most of the songwriting himself and the one cover here is soul music legend Jo Armstead’s “I Feel an Urge Coming On,” an unabashed ode to kissing, hugging and whatever may consensually follow.

“Black Glass” investigates global obsessions as the walls keep closing in and “Song for Winners” sounds cruel — “I hear no fearlessness/only fear”— but could just as well be a call for resolve and action.

Waterhouse isn’t alone in the arena when it comes to looking back decades for sonic blueprints — the whole Daptone roster and Pokey LaFarge spring to mind - but there’s an edge to some of his subject matter that feels decidedly modern.

Nick Waterhouse may be a man out of time but don’t confuse that with living in the past.

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The story of Tekashi 6ix9ine is a bizarre one, the Brooklyn rapper allegedly affiliated himself with a gang for street credibility, and then found himself extorted and kidnapped by them, is now in prison for his involvement with their crimes, and cooperated with police to convict them.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson thinks it will make for great TV, and so will the legal dramas of other celebrities, including himself: the rapper-actor-entrepreneur has inked a deal for a scripted docuseries on such subjects called “A Moment in Time” that will be produced by him through his production company G-Unit Film & Television, a rep confirms to Variety – adding that there will be episodes on “many more” celebrities as well. The news was first reported by TMZ.

“Each season will showcase historical moments in hip-hop culture and revolve around a different music icon, sports hero, infamous drug organization,” a statement reads.The series will feature six to eight hour-long per story, and two stories per season, the rep said. It premiere in early 2020, and subjects include Snoop Dogg, who underwent a murder trial at the peak of his fame in the 1990s; producer Scott Storch, who made millions as a hit producer for 50, Beyonce, Fat Joe, Christina Aguilera and others and lost it all in a spiral of drug abuse; and 50 himself, who tangled with former music executive Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond in 2007 that resulted in the murder of 50 associate Lowell “Lodi Mack” Fletcher, and for which Rosemond is serving two life sentences (for ordering Fletcher’s death and his role in a drug-trafficking operation).