''Prayer for Peace'' is the ninth studio album by American band
North Mississippi Allstars
North Mississippi Allstars is an American blues and southern rock band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is currently composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, lowebow, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, ele ...
. It was released on June 2, 2017 via Songs of the South Records, making it their final record for the label. Recording sessions took place at
Royal Studios
Royal Studios is a recording studio located in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1956, it is one of the oldest continuously operated music recording studios in the world.
It is widely known for producer, recording artist and owner ...
in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
, Brooklyn Studios in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
Independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
, Sawhorse Studios in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, Weights and Measures in Kansas City, and Arly Studios in Austin. Production was handled by Cody and
Luther Dickinson
Luther Andrews Dickinson (born January 18, 1973) is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi Allstars and the son of record producer Jim Dickinson. He is also known for being the lead guitarist for The Black Crowes. He hosts ''G ...
with co-producer Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell.
In the United States, the album made it to several ''Billboard'' charts, peaking at No. 77 on the Current Album Sales, No. 19 on the Top Americana/Folk Albums, No. 1 on the Top Blues Albums, No. 4 on the Heatseekers Albums and No. 13 on the Tastemakers.
At the 39th Blues Music Awards held in 2018, the album was nominated for a Blues Music Award for Blues Rock Album, while the band was nominated for a Blues Music Award for Band of the Year.
Critical reception
''Prayer for Peace'' was met with universal acclaim from music critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 80, based on four reviews.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
's Thom Jurek praised the album, citing the music as eternal, and said that the band's "obvious reverence for it is shown in how easily they just let it come through." Jurek elaborated that "no matter where it was recorded or who plays on it", the album felt the same− "Open, willing, and wooly". Hal Horowitz of ''
American Songwriter
''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
History
The ''American Songwri ...
'' felt that though there weren't any revelations on the album, yet "the energy, excitement and intensity poured into every performance" made it standout "in an impressive Dickinson brothers catalog that doesn't have any weak entries". ''
Uncut
Uncut may refer to:
* ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship
* ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997
* '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...
'' reviewer wrote: "Luther and Cody Dickinson strip it back on ''Prayer For Prayer'', recording in a half-dozen American cities and viscerally capturing the widespread unease". ''
Magnet
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nicke ...
'' reviewer found out the album's "rootsy sound remains more or less unchanged and identified". Writing for ''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...
'', veteran music critic Robert Christgau wrote: "Never much shakes with songs per se, they put their minds into an entreaty their South needs, their hearts into their South's African-American repertoire, and their guitars into
Will Shade
William Shade Jr. (February 5, 1898 – September 18, 1966), known as Will Shade, was a Memphis blues musician, best known for his leadership of the Memphis Jug Band. He was commonly called Son Brimmer, a nickname from his grandmother Annie Brim ...
Luther Dickinson
Luther Andrews Dickinson (born January 18, 1973) is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi Allstars and the son of record producer Jim Dickinson. He is also known for being the lead guitarist for The Black Crowes. He hosts ''G ...
– guitars, vocals, producer
* Shardé Thomas – vocals and fife (track 1)
* Sharisse Norman – vocals (track 6)
*
Danielle Nicole
Danielle Nicole (born Danielle Nicole Schnebelen) is an American blues/soul musician from Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Her self-titled solo debut EP was released March 10, 2015 on Concord Records. The self-titled EP features Grammy Awar ...
Oteil Burbridge
Oteil Burbridge is an American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the bass guitar, trained in playing jazz and classical music from an early age. He has achieved fame primarily on bass guitar during the resurgence of the Allman Brothers Ban ...
– bass (tracks: 1, 11)
* Kenny Brown – guitar (track 4)
* Dominic Davis – upright and truetone bass (tracks: 5, 6)
* Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell – co-producer and recording (tracks: 3, 4, 8–10)
* Kevin Houston – recording (tracks: 1, 5, 11), post-production editing
* Andy Taub – recording (tracks: 1, 11)
* Chad Cuttill – recording (tracks: 1, 11)
* Ben Iorio – recording (tracks: 2, 7)
* Jason McEntire – recording (track 6)
* Duane Trower – recording (track 8)
* Jacob Sciba – recording
* Chris Bell – mixing
*
Gavin Lurssen
Gavin Lurssen is an American mastering engineer. He owns Lurssen Mastering in Hollywood, California.Billy Wayne Davis – liner notes
* Chris Tetzeli – management
* Pete Frostic – management
* Josh Grier – legal
* Matt Hickey – booking