Will Dickerson grew up backstage in the New Orleans music scene, the youngest in a family of musicians. On his debut album, Welcome to Rocktavia, he owns his roots rock sound with an impassioned, raspy voice and a tight group of musicians. Contributing vocals, guitar, piano, organ and keyboard to the album, Dickerson’s talents as a multi-instrumentalist have allowed him to perform throughout the pandemic at local restaurants and porch concerts, for which he was briefly featured in a travel piece from the Washington Post. On his tour through Rocktavia, Dickerson is joined by Will Darvill on fiddle, Willie McMains on drums, Dave Prez on bass, Jody Dickerson on keyboards and Brian Goldfine and Ana de Ferreira on percussion.

Welcome to Rocktavia is a well-crafted album with interesting imaginations of covers, originals that play to the band’s greatest strengths and transitions that elevate it as a listening experience. Opening with a cover of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found (What I’m Looking For),” Dickerson introduces his players and sets the scene for a jam-band journey with smooth performances. Fiddle player Will Darvill adds great folk atmospheres to “I Can Live,” a swelling rock ballad that Dickerson wrote about moving on from someone who kept him waiting for too long. The lyrical content and sound are not reinventing anything, but the delivery is clearly personal and always endearing.

The album showcases the impressive transitions that producer Joe Diliberto uses so effectively. The most notable one comes at the end of “Walk This Way,” as the iconic Aerosmith riff fades away to be replaced by a mega-reverb arena rock guitar solo that glitches into the opening riff of “Rain” by the Beatles. Welcome to Rocktavia features solid songs and performances that are woven together with inventive transitions that make for a very satisfying album. The album is available on all streaming services.