Tom Haney blew his harp for the last time as a White Hot last week to a packed Little Theatre Café. It was a dignified affair, if not a little bittersweet. After ending with a pretty take of "As Time Goes By" Haney promised to hug everyone in the audience. I rushed forward to get the first farewell squeeze - got it, too - before realizing I had cut off Haney's mom in the process. Classy...

We'll cross paths on our way to each other's promised land - me and the hippies, that is. And The North Mississippi All Stars are gonna get the genre-swap parade rolling.

You see, NMAS play - or used to play - some real down home gutbucket blues; that beautiful swampwater moonshine boogie that was at the heart of the genre that bubbled to the surface. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson learned at the feet of cats like R.L. Burnside. Their dad is producer Jim Dickinson, who played keys on The Stones' "Wild Horses." He also produced (among many other projects) The Replacements' "Pleased To Meet Me," where he had 13-year-old Luther play the guitar solo on "Shooting Dirty Pool." So suffice it to say the blues and rock pedigree is there.

And it was there last Thursday at the Party In The Park. However, so were the jammed out, extended solos that have won them some Bonnaroo-type attention. I was hoping the jams might slip some blues to those who could frankly use it. But whaddyaknow, the blues brought the jams to me. Luther played like Duane Allman, man, with the first guitar break clocking in around seven minutes. Tonally it was so sweet. You won't catch me dead in dreads or tie dye, but you may catch me groovin' in a crowd with them that do.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band opened up the affair with plenty of Big Easyboogie. The baritone sax honked and rumbled extra low, yet managed to visit some extra high register stuff that shot up my spine. The band played a little too long and seemed to lose a little steam. I mean, it couldn't have been the 100 degree heat, could it?