A gifted guitarist with an eclectic range of influences, Luther Dickinson has earned a reputation as an innovator in modern blues while also having a keen understanding and respect for its rich history. Dickinson came from a notable musical family: his father, Jim Dickinson, was an influential studio musician and producer who played piano with Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Delaney & Bonnie, and the Rolling Stones, and produced sessions for Ry Cooder, Big Star, Toots Hibbert, and Mudhoney, among many, many others. Luther was born on January 18, 1973, in Memphis, which was his father's base of operations for many years. He made his recording debut at the age of 14, adding some guitar howls to the sessions for the Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me, produced by his dad. Around the same time that Luther began recording, the Dickinsons moved to Mississippi, and Luther and his family became regulars at juke joints where Southern blues individualists such as R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough still played on a regular basis. Luther's brother Cody, who played drums, became his musical sidekick, and after briefly backing up their dad in the memorably named combo Jim Dickinson & the Can't Hardly Playboys, the siblings formed a funk-influenced punk band with bassist Paul Taylor, called DDT. But the Mississippi hill country blues had a stronger influence on the Dickinsons, and Luther began jamming regularly with Othar Turner, one of the last surviving exponents of the Mississippi fife-and-drum tradition; Luther helped produce and compile a collection of Turner's unique music on the album Everybody's Hollerin' Goat, released in 1998. DDT had periodically performed acoustic blues sets under the name Gutbucket (releasing a 7" single on Shangri-La Records), and as Luther and Cody became more interested in cutting new blues music, they teamed up with bassist Chris Chew in 1996 to form the North Mississippi All-Stars. In 2000, the group released their debut album, Shake Hands with Shorty, which earned them enthusiastic reviews and a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The North Mississippi All-Stars developed a following as a stellar live act, and as word of Luther's instrumental prowess spread, he began doing session work, recording with the likes of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Willy DeVille, and Lucero. In 2001, the North Mississippi All-Stars teamed up with John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) and pedal steel virtuoso Robert Randolph to form an ad-hoc group called the Word, who released an acclaimed self-titled album.