Mississippi
Family Ties: North Mississippi Allstars return for a Savannah Music Festival Encore
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
Easy ways to identify snakes
Depending on where you are, snakes are inevitable. Here’s how to identify if the snake is venomous or not.
Can you kill a snake in your yard in Mississippi? As the weather heats up and people spend time outdoors, run-ins with snakes are increasingly likely.
It is legal to kill most snakes found in Mississippi. But there are rules about when you need a license. Some species have federal protection.
Mississippi is home to more than 50 types of snakes. A small number are venomous.
Most snake-related interactions can be avoided by just walking away or letting them slither to safety. Still, there are times when you might need to keep kids and pets safe.
Here’s what we know about the rules protecting wildlife, venomous snakes that live in Mississippi and which species are protected.
Can you kill a snake in your yard in Mississippi?
Yes, Mississippi residents can kill a snake in their yard. Mississippi landowners, or people who live on the property, can kill a snake on their property, whether it’s venomous or not.
It’s one of a few specific exceptions when the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks allows killing a snake without a hunting or fishing license.
Nongame snakes and animals that have come inside a resident’s building, damage plants and yards or hurt pets or livestock can be killed. Nonresidents are allowed to kill wildlife that enters a building they lease or rent.
If a venomous snake poses “a reasonable danger to human life,” MDWFP regulations allow people to kill it.
In any of these cases, the animal’s body has to be disposed of or allowed to decay in nature. You can’t keep it as a trophy or sell it.
Mississippi landowners, or people who live on a property, can kill a snake on their property, whether it’s venomous or not.
When you need a license to kill a snake
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks oversees regulations for hunting and the management of nongame species in the state.
Everyone needs the appropriate hunting/fishing license to harvest snakes for personal use, according to MDWFP information. No more than 20 nongame snakes and lizards can be taken a year. No more than four specimens of a species or subspecies should be taken from the wild in a year.
Venomous snakes found in Mississippi
The Mississippi Poison Control Center via the University of Mississippi Medical Center lists venomous snakes and other animals, like spiders, stingrays and jellyfish.
The list of dangerous snakes includes:
- Timber rattlesnakes
- Pygmy rattlesnakes
- Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes
- Water moccasins (also called Cottonmouths)
- Coral snakes
- Copperheads
Snake Snap lists eight snakes with venom. The site includes specific variations of some species: Western Cottonmouth and Northern Cottonmouth, along with the Dusky and Western variations of Pygmy Rattlesnakes.
Snakes you cannot legally kill
The Endangered Species Act helps protect native wildlife and plants from dying off entirely. The MDWFP lists several animals that are protected, including the black bear, Florida Panther and gopher tortoise. All sea turtles, sawback turtles and two kinds of bat are also protected.
These snakes are protected because they’re listed as an endangered species:
- Black pine snake
- Eastern indigo snake
- Rainbow snake
- Southern hognose snake
The Eastern Indigo Snake hasn’t been seen in decades in Mississippi. It’s now considered rare in the state or extirpated, meaning locally extinct.
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with USA TODAY Network. Email her at bbolden@gannett.com.
It will be a beautiful start to the weekend with sunny skies and highs in the 80s. Here’s your statewide forecast from the National Weather Service.
Northern Mississippi
It will be a sunny Friday with highs in the mid-80s. Friday night will be mostly cloudy and warmer with lows in the mid to upper 60s.
Central Mississippi
Friday will be sunny with highs in the mid to upper 80s. Friday night will be mostly cloudy, with lows in the mid-60s.
Southern Mississippi
It will be a sunny Friday with highs in the mid-80s. Friday night will be partly cloudy with lows in the lower 60s.
Mississippi
Golden Spikes watchlist features players from Mississippi State, Ole Miss – SuperTalk Mississippi
Two pitchers representing Mississippi universities are up for the 2026 Golden Spikes Award.
USA Baseball announced Thursday the 25 semifinalists for the award, which is presented annually to the most prolific college player in the nation. Both Mississippi State’s Tomas Valincius and Ole Miss’ Cade Townsend cracked the list. It’s the latest award each was announced to be up for after Valincius and Townsend became Ferris Trophy finalists earlier this week.
Valincius, a left-hander who followed first-year Bulldog head coach Brian O’Connor to Starkville from Virginia has been a star for Mississippi State this season. In 13 starts, the sophomore is 8-2 with a 2.52 ERA and 105 strikeouts, along with just 16 walks across 75 innings of work.
He has effectively limited opposing hitters to a .209 batting average on the year and ranks second in the SEC in strikeouts and wins, and is third in innings pitched and fourth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.56) and WHIP (0.99).
Valincius is the 10th Bulldog to earn a semifinalist distinction from the Golden Spikes Award and the first since Dakota Jordan in 2024. Will Clark is the program’s only Golden Spikes Award winner in 1985 while Rafael Palmeiro and Brent Rooker finished as finalists for the honor in 1984 and 2017, respectively.
For Ole Miss, Townsend is the first Rebel since Doug Nikhazy in 2021 and just the seventh ever to be named a semifinalist for the award. He is the first Ole Miss sophomore to ever be named a semifinalist as all six before him were juniors.
The right-hander boasts a 3.25 ERA and has struck out 77 batters while only allowing 20 earned runs in 55.1 innings. Townsend ranks fifth in the SEC in WHIP (1.01), strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.50), and strikeouts per nine innings (12.52). He leads the Rebels in all three categories as well as batters struck out looking (24) and wins and is second in opponent batting average (.202) and total strikeouts (77).
If Townsend is announced as a finalist, he will join Stephen Head and Drew Pomeranz in earning the honor. No Ole Miss player has ever won the Golden Spikes Award.
The full list of semifinalists can be found here. Finalists will be named on June 10, and this year’s Golden Spikes Award winner will be announced on the MLB Network on June 29. Fans can weigh in on which player is their favorite by clicking here.
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