“I will not be gone as long as the music lingers.”
These were some of the last words that Jim Dickinson wrote before his death in 2009. The city of Memphis continues to pay it’s debt to Dickinson and TONIGHT will mark the second Jim Dickinson Folk Festival held at Levitt Shell in Overton Park.
Born in 1941 in Little Rock, Dickinson moved to Memphis eight years later. He worked with the Rolling Stones at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in 1969, with Bob Dylan on Time Out of Mind in 1998, and on many collaborations, projects and recordings in between and after. A rundown of Dickinson’s career is essentially a timeline of music in Memphis.
Luther and Cody Dickinson, Jim’s sons and members of the North Mississippi All Stars, have been a part of one of the most prolific bands from the Memphis area in the last 20 years. The brothers will honor their late father with a performance at the festival, which is only fitting because a history of their work layered over their father’s provides a literal transition of power across generations, promising to propel music in Memphis into the future.
Other bands performing at the festival include Lucero, Mojo Nixon, Sons of Mudboy and Jimbo Mathis. Admission is free, and more information about Levitt Shell can be found at www.levittshell.org.
