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| Jimbo live with Buddy Guy |
Back during heady college days, I discovered a band called the Squirrel Nut Zippers (SNZ), where Mathus was a leader, sometimes singer, sometimes writer, musical arranger and more. This was IT, I thought, the thing that made people love music. Suddenly, I had that feeling too. I started exploring, discovered Storyville, Jelly Roll Morton, early Armstrong.
But then Jimbo released Songs for Rosetta, a solo project, in 1997, and suddenly, I was introduced to the Delta Blues. To the source I went, and waiting for me was Charlie Patton, Son House and all the others, standing in a dusky doorway of a juke joint on the edge of a cotton field.
Then Andrew Bird played with SNZ. Whoa! I thought -- violin. And so I discovered him. And then to The Jazz Squad with Katharine Whalen, and there was Billie Holiday. Mathus played with Greg Humphries, and Hobex and the jam-band sound came in to focus, along with North Mississippi All-Stars.
As he explored his varied tastes, I expanded mine. He's spent part of the past 12 years or so touring and playing with Buddy Guy, and then the rest getting back to his own roots, back in the land of his birth, Mississippi, and playing for the sheer fun of it.
He's coming out again, bringing us new stuff, this time the Tri-State Coalition, and we had a chance to catch up via phone in advance of his show here in Charleston this Saturday at The Pourhouse and his 6-song vinyl EP, Blue Light set to release later this summer.
When you started playing the blues, it wasn't as trendy as it is now. How is playing live the music you love different from when you started?
I think I've been such an underground performer for the last 10 years, that I haven't really noticed the change. I've always been exploring my Southern roots. Back in the SNZ days, when we were having that success, the Songs for Rosetta album was just kind of staking out my claim.
We were having great fun with that band and people were digging it, but I let it be known that my heart was for the Deep South Country and Blues. My heart is in Mississippi.
How has moving back to Mississippi informed your music?
Well, I was proud of what I did with the Zippers, and I haven't been in a real rush. I've been very patient about it.
Moving back here has put me back in the land of my heroes, the land of my constellation, my musical heroes, my literary heroes. I'm living in the county where I was born, and it's very meaningful, to put my thing [the new band] together. Our music resonates here, and we stay busy gigging. We've been entertaining a hell of a lot of people, and we are immersed in it, the music, the land, the nature.
The songwriting has come to a point that is going to get people's ears.
How do songs come to you?
Really one of two ways.
The first is at the Taylor Grocery. It is a catfish house open here a few days a week, and they always have a live entertainer for the catfish eaters. It's great fun, and I play there often. You play for tips, and I'll play some folk songs, get people enjoying themselves, and then I'll just keep playing, playing a song so long that it turns into something else. I write a lot of things up there.
The second is really driving, driving the backroads by myself, those low one lane roads, and just ruminating, looking at the land. I'm geared to remember stuff, and composing, assembling, and getting inspiration for songs has always been second nature to me.
Do you write all the music for Tri-State?
Yes I do. It's Southern rock with a telecaster, a pedal steel, and great harmonies, so we can do the different genres we like to do. But it's 100 percent original material.
Buy your tickets here and get your education. See you at the show!
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