Saturday To-Do: Jimbo Mathus
JIMBO MATHUS
10 p.m., White Water Tavern. $10.
Clarksdale-born Jimbo Mathus makes “Mississippi music,” he says. “I keep the old stories alive while they help keep me alive.” Luther Dickinson, of the North Mississippi Allstars and the Black Crowes, once did Mathus one better when he described him as a link in “the ‘crazy Mississippi white-boy' chain of music that goes all the way back through Elvis Presley to Jimmie Rogers … white musicians playing black music and influencing people in both cultures.” Most, however, probably remember Jimbo as the cheeky front man of the swing revival act Squirrel Nut Zippers. After a five-year hiatus, that band reunited to tour in 2007 (it'll appear at the Mulberry Mountain Music Festival near Ozark in August). But since the early 2000s, Mathus has been busy with his own projects. He's toured with Pine Bluff's CeDell Davis, served as musical director for Buddy Guy, recorded Elvis Costello in his Delta Recording Service studio in Clarksdale and released a host of records, moving easily between swamp rock, country and the acoustic blues. His latest, “Jimmy the Kid,” stretches across all those genres. Live, it's bound to sound like an ideal soundtrack for White Water Tavern.
10 p.m., White Water Tavern. $10.
Clarksdale-born Jimbo Mathus makes “Mississippi music,” he says. “I keep the old stories alive while they help keep me alive.” Luther Dickinson, of the North Mississippi Allstars and the Black Crowes, once did Mathus one better when he described him as a link in “the ‘crazy Mississippi white-boy' chain of music that goes all the way back through Elvis Presley to Jimmie Rogers … white musicians playing black music and influencing people in both cultures.” Most, however, probably remember Jimbo as the cheeky front man of the swing revival act Squirrel Nut Zippers. After a five-year hiatus, that band reunited to tour in 2007 (it'll appear at the Mulberry Mountain Music Festival near Ozark in August). But since the early 2000s, Mathus has been busy with his own projects. He's toured with Pine Bluff's CeDell Davis, served as musical director for Buddy Guy, recorded Elvis Costello in his Delta Recording Service studio in Clarksdale and released a host of records, moving easily between swamp rock, country and the acoustic blues. His latest, “Jimmy the Kid,” stretches across all those genres. Live, it's bound to sound like an ideal soundtrack for White Water Tavern.
