North Mississippi Allstars performing live.

In the late summer of 2006, North Mississippi Allstars played a show in Bend, and I interviewed guitarist Luther Dickinson for an article in these pages. What published as a story about Luther and his brother Cody, and how they came to the blues late despite growing smack dab in the middle of the North Mississippi hill country, where true, old-school country-blues was born.

Through their dad, Jim, a famous producer and pianist with deep roots in the Memphis music scene, Luther and Cody were well aware of blues legends like R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough and Otha Turner. But as youngsters, they started an edgy rock band instead of a blues band.

“We were trying to invent new music and push forward and be experimental,” Luther Dickinson told me back then. “But that’s just not me.”

Fifteen years later, Luther is one of the veterans of the American blues scene, and as one of the founding members of the North Mississippi Allstars, he has recorded 13 albums, racked up four Grammy nominations and sold out shows all over the world. The band’s latest effort, “Set Sail,” came out just last week, and it finds the band mining a smoother, more mellow brand of the blues that’ll sound just right floating out over the seats in Bend’s Tower Theatre Wednesday night.

North Mississippi Allstars: $36.50-$59.50; 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9; Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall Street, Bend; towertheatre.org.