Mississippi

Family Ties: North Mississippi Allstars return for a Savannah Music Festival Encore

Published

2 years ago

January 17, 2024

Family Ties: North Mississippi Allstars return for a Savannah Music Festival Encore

Christopher Berinato
| Savannah Morning News

Roots music is not just about emulating the sounds and aesthetics of traditional American tunes. After 25 years, 12 albums, four Grammy Award nominations, and numerous sold-out concerts, North Mississippi Allstars have consistently shown that the “roots” that inform their Hill Country blues grow out of a strong connection to the people and cultures of their home state, as well deep family bonds.

North Mississippi Allstars (NMA) was founded by brothers Luther (guitar/vocals) and Cody (drums/keyboards/vocals) Dickinson in 1996. Luther and Cody are the sons of legendary Memphis record producer and musician Jim Dickinson. Although NMA’s line-up is constantly shifting, as second-generation musicians, Luther and Cody tend to find chemistry with other players that come from musical families.

“Most of my closest friends and collaborators are second-generation musicians,” said Luther. “We speak the same language and fall easily into the flow.”

Making music with family and friends in their orbits

For their latest album, Set Sail, NMA recruited bassist Jesse Williams and singer Lamar Williams Jr. Jesse comes from a family of musicians, having played with his father and brothers, and Lamar is the son of Allman Brothers bassist Lamar Williams Sr. Luther and Cody met Lamar Jr. at an Allman Betts Family Revival and became fast friends and collaborators.

“Musicians’ lives are like orbits with gravitational pulls,” explained Luther. “We meet musicians out on the road, and our records reflect whose orbits we are intersecting with at that time.”

When NMA recorded Set Sail they had just begun working with Jesse and Lamar as the pandemic hit. The bandmates continued to record the album from afar, sending the music back and forth from their respective home studios.

“I had new songs and we found solace in collaborating on recording them during the quarantine,” said Luther.

The family element on Set Sail was also enhanced by some vocals from Luther’s two daughters. Speaking of his daughters, Luther recently released a solo album of lullabies and sing-alongs for children (that adults can enjoy, too) called Magic Music for Family Folk.

“As a touring musician I initially recorded these songs that I had learned from my father so my kids could listen, learn and sing along with me while I was out on tour,” said Luther. “I burned a CD for my kids to keep them company while I was working. The concept grew from there.”

Luther and Cody have separately produced albums for artists like Lucero, Samantha Fish, R.L. Boyce, Amy Lavere, the Birds of Chicago, and Ian Segal. Although they learned a lot from their famous father, the Dickinson Brothers have developed their own identities and styles as producers.

Luther has recently been inspired by the philosophies of other legendary producers.

“Rick Rubin taught me to let the lyrical form be free and not constricted to rhyme schemes and syllable count and patterns,” explained Luther. “Playing with Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead), I studied the songs of [Jerry]Garcia and [Robert]Hunter and realized that the music is designed to suit the lyrics and melody, not the other way around. These two concepts were very liberating in finishing the songs on Set Sail.

“Quincy Jones explained in his book that he won’t allow a singer to record with a lyric sheet. He insists a singer internalize a song before recording. I recorded the basic tracks of Set Sail with an acoustic guitar, drum beat and my lyric book only for reference. Not reading the lyrics but singing them from the heart and even improvising new lyrics on the mic was very inspiring. It seems simple but I grew up with the habit of a lyric sheet.”

NMA appeared alongside fellow Mississippi artists at the Savannah Music Festival in 2022 as part of the “Voices of Mississippi” presentation by folklorist Dr. William Ferris. While NMA maintain a reverence and guardianship of the music that comes out of Mississippi, they still find ways to incorporate rock, Delta blues, folk, psychedelic, jam, soul, jazz, and rap into their sound in a way that pushes the music of their home ever forward.

“Roots Music has to evolve and adapt to survive,” said Luther. “We have always blended our influences and natural instincts into our style, in a casual way. We have never strived to be overtly old fashioned but more primitive modernists. Playing songs that we learned from our family and community, be it our dad or RL Burnside feels like an act of communion. The elders were so helpful to us, we have to keep up our end of the deal and keep the songs alive. Sharde Thomas keeps her grandfather Otha Turner’s music alive, as well as the Burnside family, the Kimbrough family, not to mention many others.”

If You Go >>

What: SMF Encore presents North Mississippi Allstars

When: 8 p.m., Jan. 20

Where: Victory North, 2603 Whitaker St.

Cost: $35

Info: savannahmusicfestival.org

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Mississippi

New tariff on brand name drugs could impact Mississippi pharmacies

Published

4 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Press Room

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – A new federal tariff on imported, brand name prescription drugs could soon impact how much Mississippians pay at pharmacies.

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday targeting imported brand name drugs with a 100 percent tariff, citing the U.S.’s “import reliance” as reason for the decision.

“We’re concerned about those patients not being able to afford their medications. When a patient cannot afford their medication, they tend to skip their medication. And so, a little problem can lead to a large problems with hospital visits,” said Dr. Andrew Clark, owner of Northtown Pharmacy.

Pharmacists are also worried about whether medications will be available at all.

“If their cost increase, those supply chains will be disrupted, which can lead to back order or medication shortage. And as a pharmacist, what we’re concerned about is adherence. If there’s a shortage in medication, then those patients are not adhering to those medications,” Clark said.

While the policy aims to lower drug costs by bringing more manufacturing to the U.S., pharmacists said that relief won’t happen overnight.

“I don’t see drug manufacturers moving next month. And so, you can’t go two and three months without getting medication or can’t afford those medications,” stated Clark.

Pharmacists encouraged anyone picking up prescriptions to ask about lower-cost alternatives, generics or patient assistance programs to help manage costs.

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Mississippi

Desoto County native helps guide NASA’s Artemis II moon mission

Published

16 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Press Room

Desoto County native helps guide NASA’s Artemis II moon mission

From Mississippi to the moon.

That’s one way to characterize the career trajectory of Matthew Ramsey, a DeSoto County native who is helping to guide Artemis II, the NASA space mission now on its way to Earth’s natural satellite.

A veteran aerospace engineer and 1993 Mississippi State graduate who pitched for the university’s “Diamond Dawgs” baseball team while studying the science and design principles that would prove invaluable to NASA, Ramsey, who hails from Hernando, is “mission manager” for the expedition that is taking astronauts around the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Working largely out of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ramsey was responsible for ensuring the safety and efficiency of the hardware and technology for the flight, while also helping to define the priorities of the mission.

Launched April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Artemis II mission consists of four astronauts inside an Orion rocket on a 10-day, 685,000-mile “flyby” around the moon. The crew will test life-support systems, engineering maneuverability and other aspects of space travel in preparation for the return of astronauts to the lunar surface — and beyond.

“For me, it’s all about the crew and ensuring their safety as they venture to the Moon and come home,” said Ramsey, in a statement released by NASA. “Sending people thousands of miles from home and doing it in a way that sets the stage for long-term exploration and scientific discovery is an incredibly complex task.”

Referencing his college career with the Mississippi State Bulldogs, or “Diamond Dawgs,” he said: “There are a lot of similarities between mission management and pitching. You control many aspects of the tempo, and there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders.”

Ramsey worked in both private and government sectors of the tech industry before joining the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2002, working on the design of guidance, navigation and control systems for various rocket programs. For Artemis I, the uncrewed moon-orbiting mission of 2022, he coordinated the work of multiple engineering teams.

Ramsey and his colleagues already are preparing for Artemis III, which will conduct tests in Earth’s orbit, and Artemis IV, scheduled for the spring of 2028, which will return astronauts to the lunar surface.

As a NASA press release states, Ramsey is helping to get the space agency “primed for what lies ahead: sending humans back to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years and laying the foundation for future missions that will ultimately enable human exploration of Mars.”

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Mississippi

Mississippi judges could receive pay raises exceeding $10,000

Published

1 day ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Mississippi judges could receive pay raises exceeding ,000

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – More than 100 judges could soon receive pay raises exceeding $10,000 under legislation now awaiting the governor’s signature.

In all, 128 judges would receive raises ranging from $11,404 to $13,877.

“We’re doing that for judges to retain good judges, to attract better lawyers to the bench to serve as judges,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, who voted in favor of the pay raise.

Proposed raises by position

Circuit and chancery court judges would receive a pay raise of $13,063, bringing their new salary to $171,063.

Presiding justices of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $13,877, bringing their new salary to $190,614.

Associate justices of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $13,825, bringing their new salary to $187,625.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $12,680, bringing the new salary to $194,171.

The chief judge of the Court of Appeals would receive a pay raise of $13,275, bringing the new salary to $182,624.

Associate judges of the Court of Appeals would receive a pay raise of $11,404, bringing their new salary to $179,871.

“We want the best people in those jobs. To attract them, you got to pay them,” Johnson said.

Teacher pay comparison

While Johnson supported the judicial pay raises, he said teachers should have also received a significant pay increase.

Lawmakers approved giving teachers and assistant teachers a $2,000 raise.

Special education teachers would get an additional $2,000, for a total raise of $4,000.

Mississippi ranks last in the country when it comes to teacher pay.

According to the National Education Association, the average teacher salary in Mississippi is $53,704.

Johnson said state leaders should find funding to give educators a thriving wage, the same way they did for judges.

“We ought to have that same philosophy, and I have that same philosophy, and I think most people do with teachers, we need to do the same thing,” Johnson said. “Now, arguably, a teacher pay raise I’m talking about would be 10 to 20 times larger because there are more teachers than there are judges. But the philosophy is the same. If you want to attract the best people, you’ve got to pay the best people.”

The bill now heads to the governor’s desk. If signed into law, the new raises would take effect July 1.

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