Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition

By Roy Kasten

"At this point in history, it should be unnecessary to reference the Squirrel Nut Zippers in contextualizing Jimbo Mathus' music. Yes, he founded that band, and he's never tasted commercial success on the order of the 1996 crossover hit 'Hell.' But his post-Zippers career has been prolific and potent, more blues sting than ersatz swing. As a producer and guitarist he's worked with Andrew Bird, Buddy Guy and the daughter of Charley Patton. Last year he jammed with fellow Mississippi hellhounds Luther Dickinson and Alvin Youngblood Hart in the South Memphis String Band and then wrote and directed a musical called Mosquitoville: Mississippi Songs and Stories. Along with Jack White and Tom Waits, Mathus is simply one of the blues' greatest living evangelists and innovators." - Riverfront Times - St. Louis, MO

Getting to know the man behind the magic: Jimbo Mathus

ARTICLE | THU, 11/11/2010 - 09:30 | BY TAYLOR KAMNETZ

Jimbo Mathus is not your typical Southern man.

His music, an eclectic combination of blues, country and soul, creates the ideal music that Mathus has always had in mind.

Born and raised in the northeast part of Mississippi, Mathus has the best of the South in the palm of his hand, and he takes full advantage of everything it brings to his attention.

Other than playing in his band, Jimbo Mathus and the Tristate Coalition, Mathus has many secret talents hidden up his sleeve.

In March of this past year, Mathus put on a musical, “Mosquitoville: Mississippi Songs and Stories,” at the Panola Playhouse in Sardis.

Alongside this accomplishment, Mathus owns Delta Recording Service in Como.

One of Mathus’ main desires with his music and productions is to present the history and heritage of Mississippi to its residents and to have them appreciate where they’re from.

Unlike many artists in the industry today, Mathus clearly has a different approach to the business that he is in. Talking to him, it is easy to pick up that he actually loves music..

This week, I got to speak with Jimbo Mathus, and was able to begin to understand the various colors of his character and music.

When did you realize you wanted to play music?

I grew up with a family of musicians in northeast Mississippi, so I’ve been around music since before I was born.

What instruments can you play?

Harmonica, mandolin, guitar, piano, bass, singing and I learned about harmonizing.

What’s your favorite?</b>

Drums, it’s so fun. It uses major parts of your body. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like dancing.

How would you describe your sound?

I play a southern gumbo (guitar), so I try to represent the different blues, the different country and the different rock music. I mix it all up, and I call it catfish music, I don’t know why. Catfish live on the bottom, and they just get bigger and bigger. The only thing that’s gonna eat a catfish is an alligator or a snake with a bad attitude. See, me and my wife go fishing on the Tallahatchie, so it came together in my mind as catfish music.

Who’s your favorite band of the moment?

I just started getting in to, believe it or not, the Black Crowes. My friend Luther plays for them, and I’ve been talking with their lead singer, and he really likes my music.

Luther just gave me their LP record they just came out with, and I got a record player, and that’s really all I’ve been listening to.

So you usually listen to records?

Yeah, I listen to records more than CDs. I listen to CDs when I’m producing out of my studio, but for my own enjoyment I listen to records.

Where do you find your inspiration?

I’ve just been doing it my whole life but from art, literature, nature, people, just from everything, relationships.

My inspiration is very southern-centric, especially Mississippi. So much has happened here.

In 10 years, what would you like to be doing?

I’d like to be playing and singing for people, catfish-ing in the Tallahatchie, have a marionette theater somewhere - have the first one in Sardis.

Do you have a favorite song to play at a show?

Probably “Who’s Gonna Sop My Gravy When I’m Dead and Gone” because the crowd seems to like that best. I’ll play for the crowd who loves to see us, but I like to keep new stuff coming.

Jimbo Mathus is a man of passion, and the same is said about those in his band.

Check out Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition tonight as they take the stage at Roosters Blues House at 8 p.m.
- The Daily Mississippian - Oxford, MS

Through his swamp-soul croons, yelps and harmonies, you hear Jimbo Mathus’ command of his songs. His stories of confused drifters and shady deals are told with the reserve and candor of a road-hewn musician who knows he’s got your attention and can keep it. Hailing from Clarksdale, Miss., Mathus has spent the last two decades touring and record-ing with a host of musicians including his band, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Andrew Bird and Gut-Bucket, as well as releasing solo records. Presently, he is on the road with his backing band, the versatile Tri-State Coalition, which can hurl Mathus into a chugging, electric Delta blues or create a pocket for the funky twang and jazz guitar chords that Mathus stirs into the mix. - KDXH - St. Louis, MO

Through his swamp-soul croons, yelps and harmonies, you hear Jimbo Mathus’ command of his songs. His stories of confused drifters and shady deals are told with the reserve and candor of a road-hewn musician who knows he’s got your attention and can keep it. Hailing from Clarksdale, Miss., Mathus has spent the last two decades touring and record-ing with a host of musicians including his band, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Andrew Bird and Gut-Bucket, as well as releasing solo records. Presently, he is on the road with his backing band, the versatile Tri-State Coalition, which can hurl Mathus into a chugging, electric Delta blues or create a pocket for the funky twang and jazz guitar chords that Mathus stirs into the mix. - KDXH - St. Louis, MO

Going country a natural step on Jimbo Mathus' eclectic path
By Mark Jordan

Friday, November 5, 2010

Calling from North Carolina, where he is on a fishing trip with his daughter Cecelia Mae — "Crappie and bream and whatever will bite a worm," he says of their intended catch — Mississippi singer-songwriter Jimbo Mathus makes no excuses for being musically aberrant.

"I just love everything," he says. "I think if you look over the years, pretty much every CD has been a radical departure from the one before it, which is kind of a bad habit of mine."

Mathus, who performs Friday at the 1884 Lounge at Minglewood Hall, first came to music fans' attention in the '90s as founder of North Carolina deconstructed swing band Squirrel Nut Zippers. The band also featured Cecilia's mother, Mathus' ex-wife, Katharine Whalen.

When the group largely disbanded following their divorce, the Clarksdale native returned home and began throwing himself into various blues-based projects such as the rock band Knockdown South and the jug band record Old School Hot Wings.

He became a frequent collaborator with members of North Mississippi's Dickinson family, playing on, among others, the North Mississippi Allstars' Grammy-nominated Electric Blue Watermelon, the late Jim Dickinson's Free Beer Tomorrow, and Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson's Sons Of Mudboy record Onward and Upward. And he became a regular sideman at Oxford's Sweet Tea Recording, which led him to play on a pair of acclaimed Buddy Guy releases, including the Grammy-winning Blues Singer.

But even with such an eclectic résumé, when Mathus made a sharp turn toward country music a few years ago, it caught many off guard. In 2005, Mathus pieced together a country demo at his Clarksdale studio, Delta Recording Service. He followed up by forming the ad hoc band the Starlite Wranglers to explore further the country side of his musical heritage in a live setting.

"I love country music," he says. "I grew up playing mandolin, and my dad played five-string banjo. I grew up in a country band."

The Wranglers remained a loose assemblage, however, until two years ago when Arkansas guitarist Matt Pierce sought out Mathus.

"He came and tracked me down when I had my studio in Clarksdale," says Mathus, who has since relocated to Como, Miss. "He insisted that I start a band with him. He said if I started a band with him, he'd get me a Nudie suit."

The pair soon enlisted Missouri native Austin Marshall to play drums and bassist Justin Showah and keyboardist Eric Carlton, both of the Magnolia State, to round out the group, which they dubbed the Tri-State Coalition. Mathus calls the Coalition the first proper band he's had in more than 10 years, since the days of Zippers.

"It's great because they know all my back material," Mathus says, explaining how the band puts its own "interplanetary honky tonk" stamp on his older, bluesier material. "I can call out any tune, and they know it. We can also improvise easier and extend the songs in all kinds of different ways. It's also more relaxing for me. I can focus more on leading the charge. It just allows me a lot of freedom."

The first Tri-State Coalition album is due in spring of next year. Titled Confederate Buddha, the record promises to be a more seamless blending of Mathus' influences with a lot less focus on the honky tonk and more rock.

Meantime, Mathus and company will be stepping up their touring, including reaching up north to Memphis where they have been seen little in recent years.

"From Hernando (Mississippi) down," says Mathus, describing his touring pattern of recent years. "I don't know why. People just haven't really reached out to me. Memphis can be kind of a tough town, don't you think?"

Jimbo Mathus & Tri-State Coalition

9 p.m. Friday at the 1884 Lounge, inside Minglewood Hall at 1555 Madison. Tickets: $10 at the door only. For more information, call 312-6058, or visit minglewoodhall.com.


© 2010 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online - The Commercial Appeal - Memphis, TN

Going country a natural step on Jimbo Mathus' eclectic path
By Mark Jordan

Friday, November 5, 2010

Calling from North Carolina, where he is on a fishing trip with his daughter Cecelia Mae — "Crappie and bream and whatever will bite a worm," he says of their intended catch — Mississippi singer-songwriter Jimbo Mathus makes no excuses for being musically aberrant.

"I just love everything," he says. "I think if you look over the years, pretty much every CD has been a radical departure from the one before it, which is kind of a bad habit of mine."

Mathus, who performs Friday at the 1884 Lounge at Minglewood Hall, first came to music fans' attention in the '90s as founder of North Carolina deconstructed swing band Squirrel Nut Zippers. The band also featured Cecilia's mother, Mathus' ex-wife, Katharine Whalen.

When the group largely disbanded following their divorce, the Clarksdale native returned home and began throwing himself into various blues-based projects such as the rock band Knockdown South and the jug band record Old School Hot Wings.

He became a frequent collaborator with members of North Mississippi's Dickinson family, playing on, among others, the North Mississippi Allstars' Grammy-nominated Electric Blue Watermelon, the late Jim Dickinson's Free Beer Tomorrow, and Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson's Sons Of Mudboy record Onward and Upward. And he became a regular sideman at Oxford's Sweet Tea Recording, which led him to play on a pair of acclaimed Buddy Guy releases, including the Grammy-winning Blues Singer.

But even with such an eclectic résumé, when Mathus made a sharp turn toward country music a few years ago, it caught many off guard. In 2005, Mathus pieced together a country demo at his Clarksdale studio, Delta Recording Service. He followed up by forming the ad hoc band the Starlite Wranglers to explore further the country side of his musical heritage in a live setting.

"I love country music," he says. "I grew up playing mandolin, and my dad played five-string banjo. I grew up in a country band."

The Wranglers remained a loose assemblage, however, until two years ago when Arkansas guitarist Matt Pierce sought out Mathus.

"He came and tracked me down when I had my studio in Clarksdale," says Mathus, who has since relocated to Como, Miss. "He insisted that I start a band with him. He said if I started a band with him, he'd get me a Nudie suit."

The pair soon enlisted Missouri native Austin Marshall to play drums and bassist Justin Showah and keyboardist Eric Carlton, both of the Magnolia State, to round out the group, which they dubbed the Tri-State Coalition. Mathus calls the Coalition the first proper band he's had in more than 10 years, since the days of Zippers.

"It's great because they know all my back material," Mathus says, explaining how the band puts its own "interplanetary honky tonk" stamp on his older, bluesier material. "I can call out any tune, and they know it. We can also improvise easier and extend the songs in all kinds of different ways. It's also more relaxing for me. I can focus more on leading the charge. It just allows me a lot of freedom."

The first Tri-State Coalition album is due in spring of next year. Titled Confederate Buddha, the record promises to be a more seamless blending of Mathus' influences with a lot less focus on the honky tonk and more rock.

Meantime, Mathus and company will be stepping up their touring, including reaching up north to Memphis where they have been seen little in recent years.

"From Hernando (Mississippi) down," says Mathus, describing his touring pattern of recent years. "I don't know why. People just haven't really reached out to me. Memphis can be kind of a tough town, don't you think?"

Jimbo Mathus & Tri-State Coalition

9 p.m. Friday at the 1884 Lounge, inside Minglewood Hall at 1555 Madison. Tickets: $10 at the door only. For more information, call 312-6058, or visit minglewoodhall.com.


© 2010 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online - The Commercial Appeal - Memphis, TN