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7/1/2006
Bill Bentley
This year has seemed like an endless game of Six Degrees of Separation with Jim Dickinson. The Memphis musician/producer has turned up on so many recordings that it’s like there must be more than one of him out there, toiling away and making magic.
Dickinson produced God’s Tattoos as his Zebra Ranch studio in Mississippi, once again honing in on what makes an artist unique, and then giving them room to glow. Ellis is at heart a country blues player, full of fire and faith, but rather than rework that sacred form, he pulls it into the present with lyrical flashes of inspiration, and a sonic glow that seems to shine straight from the disc into a listener’s heart. The man has learned that it’s never enough to live in the past, as tempting as that may be, but the challenge is to take his songs for a walk into the present. On “Perfect Ones Who Break,” “Snakes in My Garden” and “Dust Will Write My Name,” Ellis and Dickinson head for the cosmic side of the road, a place both know well, and show us just what a groovy spot that can be.