THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Individually, JD Simo and Luther Dickinson are building their legacies as solo artists, sidemen, songwriters, and guitar heroes. Together, they’re a creative force to be reckoned with, making their version of amplified American roots music. On the pair’s first collaborative album, Do The Rump!, the musicians trade blistering guitar solos, take turns at the microphone, and turn their classic influences — including hill country blues, spirituals, swamp rock, and Afrobeat — into something contemporary, reinterpreting a number of their old-school favorites into eclectic, electrifying anthems.
The partnership began onstage, where Simo and Dickinson first shared the spotlight as touring members of Phil Lesh and Friends. Dickinson had already established himself as co-founder of the Grammy-winning duo North Mississippi Allstars and a celebrated guitarist for acts like Black Crowes and John Hiatt. Similarly,Simo built an audience through his solo project and as a session musician for Jack White, Beyoncé, Chris Isaak and Baz Luhrmann‘s Elvis movie. Occupying the same stage felt different, though. “Playing with Luther immediately felt as easy as water flowing down a river,” Simo remembers. “We had all the same influences, but we played nothing alike. Our styles just fit together. We didn’t have to think about it — it was instinctual.”
Those instincts take center stage on Do The Rump!, whose eight songs were recorded during a series of live-in-the-studio performances. There were no overdubs. There are no production tricks, either. Joined by drummer Adam Abarashoff — whose background in Afrobeat and jazz helped push Do The Rump into unexpected directions — the friends captured spontaneity in its purest form, recording most of the songs during a single take, allowing a natural combination of grooves and guitars to lead the way.
Do The Rump! was recorded at House of Grease, Simo’s home studio in Nashville, where Simo and Dickinson shared production duties. “Adam would play something cool, and once we had that groove, we’d build on top of it,” Simo says. “We couldn’t have done it with anyone but Adam.” Those inspirational drum parts motivated the two guitarists to develop new riffs and melodies. Equally inspirational were the songs that had inspired all three musicians to begin playing in the first place. They found themselves going back to those songs, borrowing lyrics from vintage classics like Bobby Charles’ Street People and John Lee Hooker’s Serves Me Right To Suffer, fusing those texts into the band’s newly written compositions. The result is a mix of new and old — an album that reimagines songs by JJ Cale, Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside, and others, providing an updated setting for songs that stand the test of time.”
