Electric Blue Watermelon

Last updated
Electric Blue Watermelon
NoMissA Watermelon.jpg
Studio album by
North Mississippi Allstars
ReleasedSeptember 6, 2005 (2005-09-06)
Studio
Genre
Length49:17
Label ATO Records
Producer Jim Dickinson
North Mississippi Allstars chronology
Polaris
(2003)		Electric Blue Watermelon
(2005)		 Hernando
(2008)

Electric Blue Watermelon is the fourth studio album by American band North Mississippi Allstars. It was released on September 6, 2005, through ATO Records. Recording sessions took place at Ardent Studios and at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee and at Zebra Ranch in Independence, Mississippi. Production was handled by Jim Dickinson. It features contributions from Lucinda Williams, Robert Randolph, Al Kapone, Othar Turner, Jimbo Mathus, Ben Nichols, Jimmy Davis, Jim Crosthwait, Jim Spake, Steve Selvidge, Susan Marshall, Mary Lindsay Dickinson, John C. Stubblefield, R.L. Boyce, Sharde Turner, Aubrey Turner, Rodney Evans, Otha Andre Evans, Whitney Jefferson, Robert "Tex" Wrightsil, Harold "Sundance" Thomas, Roger Lewis, Kevin Harris, Efrem Towns, Terence Higgins, Julius McKee, Revert Andrews, Jamie McLean and Jim Dickinson.

Contents

The album made it to number 180 on the Billboard 200, topped the Top Blues Albums and peaked at number 8 on the Heatseekers Albums. It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, but lost to Delbert McClinton's Cost of Living .

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 79/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Entertainment Weekly B+ [3]
PopMatters 8/10 [4]
Robert Christgau Five Pointed Star Solid.svg Five Pointed Star Solid.svg [5]

Electric Blue Watermelon was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 79, based on eleven reviews. [1]

Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly found the album "it's sort of like The Allman Brothers Band jamming with the P-Funk All Stars, with LL Cool J guesting". [3] AllMusic's Steve Leggett praised the album, saying: "what they really are is a 21st century version of a good old Southern rock band who know all too well that the hills of North Mississippi are alive with real folk music". [2] Adrien Begrand of PopMatters said that the album "expertly combines elements of the previous three albums with a few cool new additions, making for not only the most diverse concoction of blues and rock the band has recorded to date, but also their best album so far". [4] Veteran critic Robert Christgau said: "They've learned to lilt, or else agreed to let their daddy show them how" and selected two songs: "Hurry Up Sunrise" and "Bang Bang Lulu". [5]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Mississippi Boll Weevil" Charley Patton 2:48
2."No Mo" North Mississippi Allstars 4:56
3."Teasin' Brown"
3:38
4."Moonshine"NMA4:18
5."Hurry Up Sunrise"Othar Turner · Luther Dickinson4:58
6."Stompin' My Foot"
3:37
7."Bang Bang Lulu"
4:03
8."Deep Blue Sea" Odetta Gordon 3:52
9."Mean Ol' Wind Died Down"NMA7:22
10."Horseshoe"NMA5:02
11."Bounce Ball"Othar Turner4:43
Total length:49:17

Personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Electric Blue Watermelon
Chart (2005)Peak
position
US Billboard 200 [6] 180
US Top Blues Albums (Billboard) [7] 1
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [8] 8

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References

  1. 1 2 "Critic Reviews for Electric Blue Watermelon". Metacritic . Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Leggett, Steve. "Electric Blue Watermelon - North Mississippi Allstars | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic . Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  3. 1 2 Sinclair, Tom (March 17, 2020). "Electric Blue Watermelon". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Begrand, Adrien (August 31, 2005). "North Mississippi Allstars: Electric Blue Watermelon, PopMatters". PopMatters . Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: CG: North Mississippi Allstars". www.robertchristgau.com. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  6. ↑ "North Mississippi Allstars Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  7. ↑ "North Mississippi Allstars Chart History (Top Blues Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  8. ↑ "North Mississippi Allstars Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
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