Bluestown Music

The New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers originated back in January, 2008, when musician brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson sat down for a guitar jam with ex-Squirrel Nut Zippers leader Jimbo Mathus, along with blues greats Charlie Musselwhite, Alvin Youngblood Hart and the late Memphis pianist, producer and all around musical stylist Jim Dickinson, gathered for a self-described “hardcore blues” recording under the group name of the New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers.

For more than 12 years, that recording’s existence was mentioned only obscurely in interviews, and referenced as a great old-school recording by those few witnesses. It was done in one take off-the- floor over a couple of late nights, where the musicians all sat in one big circle in the studio and played quietly amongst the microphones, taking turns singing out in the room and improvising on the spot. Despite the fact that Jim Dickinson finished production before his death in summer of 2009, the album just hung out in the archives, waiting. It is a testament to the great experience and talent of these esteemed performers that they could casually conjure a recording of this quality out of the ether this way, sounding as if the listener is right there in the room with them, with between-song banter and commentary, the classic structures of the blues, being pulled together and teased apart by some of the most award-decorated members of the blues elite. This album crosses the generations of new blues-rockers and classic blues statesmen.