The North Mississippi Allstars have always been advocates of Hill Country Blues, the style of Mississippi blues that was born and propagated by such luminaries as Fred MacDowell, John Hurt, and, most notably, R.L. Burnside.

When Allstars’ guitarist Luther Dickinson took the job vacated by Marc Ford in the Black Crowes, drummer Cody Dickinson and bassist Chris Chew decided to form the Hill Country Revue with the mission of furthering the music of the Burnsides to a public that is only peripherally aware of their contributions to the blues. To accomplish this in grand style, they enlisted the talents of Kirk Smithhart, who was awarded the Albert King Award for “Best Guitarist” by the Blues Foundation when he was only 19.

The band tapped Ed “Hot” Cleveland to play drums, who grew up surrounded by the Memphis gospel sound and has recorded with many A-list performers, and to round out the band brought in Dixie Dan Coburn, vocalist and frontman with the energy to set this band off like a blasting cap.

Now they’ve released their debut album, “Make A Move,” on Razor & Tie Records, and it lives up to everything their fans expected and hoped for. The majority of the material is written by Garry Burnside, the youngest of R.L. & Alice Mae Burnside’s 14 children, who is a walking encyclopedia of Mississippi hill country blues. He grew up playing every Sunday night with Junior Kimbrough at Junior’s world-famous juke joint.

Dickinson, who plays guitar and electric washboard in the band, says of the album - “This is really back to the roots of blues. It’s funky, really nasty, that’s the best way to describe it. Gritty, messy, stripped down.”

The album rocks in a way no other hill country blues albums have rocked before, and is a must-have for any blues fans.

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