Jimbo Mathus

Jimbo Mathus After the Squirrel Nut Zippers' implosion in 2001, the band's co-founder, James "Jimbo" Mathus, returned to his Mississippi roots, literally and figuratively. Following up the thread of blues he'd explored with the Knockdown Society on 1997's Songs for Rosetta, Mathus began to till the dark Delta soil of his youth. His subsequent three albums have mined a grimy, juke-joint swamp-blues descended from Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and T-Model Ford. He adopts a hill country, back-porch-boogie sound, like the North Mississippi All Stars and Duwayne Burnside before him. Mathus' eclectic tastes cover a wide expanse, including Allman Brothers Southern-funk, Stonesey rural blues and ragged hootenannies incorporating gospel, rag and country-blues. Whether he's playing dusty, wind-blown roots or mud-caked blues, there's a raw, ramshackle sway to Mathus that apes the downtrodden charm of the characters in his songs.