North Mississippi Allstars Pay Tribute To Les Paul

On Tuesday June 9^th, now officially known as Les Paul Day, The Iridium paid tribute to their long time resident guitarist extraordinaire.

The night started with North Mississippi Allstars out of Hernando, Mississippi. The band consists of brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson and a rotation of bassists. They played a seventeen-song set of their jam style blues-rock, which included covers of blues legends Charley Patton, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bukka White, Elmore James, R.L. Burnside and The Pindar Family & Joseph Spence.

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If you’ve never seen these guys you don’t know what you’re missing. You never know what singer/guitarist Luther will bring out to play. It could be the big marching band bass drum or his homemade cigar box guitar. This night we were treated to his homemade coffee can guitar while brother/drummer Cody jammed out on his electric washboard.

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Thanks to Iridium owner, Ron Sturm, I was lucky enough to hang out for the Late Night Private Jam Session in Honor of the Les Paul 100^th Anniversary. This was hosted by Las Vegas’ Count’s 77. These hard rocking, classic rockers are led by Danny “Count” Koker of TV’s “Counting Cars”. They got the place going with some covers of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. After a bunch of songs they brought out the stool that Les used every Monday night. The night turned into an open jam session, and members of the Les Paul Trio took the stage. Newcomers, Lyric Dubee and Steve Costello joined veterans Lou Pallo, Jon Paris, Earl Slick and Joe Louis Walker on stage.