Keys to the Kingdom was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 68, based on six reviews.[1]
Doug Collette of All About Jazz found out that the album "hearkens back to The North Mississippi Allstars earliest and rootsiest records, but nevertheless represents a marked advance in maturity".[2]AllMusic's Thom Jurek wrote that it "may have been recorded in response to death and birth but it is, more than anything else, a celebration of all that Jim Dickinson held dear in life and music, which are, after all, the same thing".[3] Katie Chow of American Songwriter resumed: "Keys to the Kingdom is both a tribute to and a continuation of the Dickinson musical tradition".[4]David Fricke of Rolling Stone wrote: "deep roots, improvising valor and live-Cream brawn come easily to this trio. Catching it all in the studio has been harder, like juggling snakes and feral cats. Singer-guitarist Luther Dickinson, his drumming brother, Cody, and bassist Chris Chew come close".[6]
In a mixed review, Jim Caligiuri of The Austin Chronicle wrote: "more song-oriented than some past Allstars efforts and with an emphasis on country and gospel rather than the trio's gut-bucket blues, it wallops undeniable warmth even when the material itself veers from the Dickinsons' natural strengths".[5]
