Jimbo Mathus - Confederate Buddha

The late, great producer, raconteur, pianist, session man, artist and sage Jim Dickinson once called Jimbo Mathus “the singing voice of Huck Finn.” Outside the South, Jimbo is likely best known as the ringleader of the hyper-ragtime outfit Squirrel Nut Zippers, or as the catalyst for Buddy Guy's breakthrough Sweet Tea in 2001 and Guy's Grammy-winning Blues Singer album.

In his native Mississippi, and throughout the South, Mathus is recognized as the prolific songwriter of born-in-the-bone Southern music, the torchbearer for Deep South mythology and culture.  Think Delta highways, bowling-pin Budweisers and “innerplanetary honky-tonk” for the masses.

His credits include vocals on the North Mississippi Allstars’ Electric Blue Watermelon and was, himself, Grammy-nominated for his participation on the Jim Dickinson memorial album, Onward and Upward as a member of Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy. He also joined forces with Luther and Alvin Youngblood Hart, forming the retro-roots “supergroup” South Memphis String Band whose Memphis International debut was Home Sweet Home.

He recorded Confederate Buddha, his forthcoming solo album to be released by Memphis International on May 24 with his current band, The Tri-State Coalition, featuring solid talent cut from the same Delta cloth.  He describes the sound as  “...a true Southern amalgam of blues, white country, soul and rock-n- roll."

The idea behind the album’s title germinated from Jimbo’s interest in regional folklore and art forms.  “I got the (Alan) Lomax book [The Land Where The Blues Began] and found myself going where he went and those same places, the same churches are still there and I was finding these weird country people who are backwoods bodhisattvas – oracles, rural sages who are so wise and of the past projecting an image of both peace and rebellion.

"Confederate Buddha is the first album I’ve written and recorded with a band in mind,” he notes, having previously based his recordings around songs rather than players and says the result has a “southern rock feel to it.” For the past two years, he’s been with these same cats – fellow Mississippians Justin Showah (bass, vocals) who also co-produced and co-engineered and Eric Carlton (keyboards), Arkansan Matt Pierce (guitar) and drummer Austin Marshall from Missouri a/k/a the “Tri” in “Tri-state.” The result is a sound that’s coherent and rock solid. These core players were augmented by guests Forest Parker, Billy Earhart, Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson, Paul Taylor, Paul Morelli, Steve Selvidge, Lightnin' Malcolm and Brian Ledford along with Jennifer Pierce Mathus, Gin Gin Carlton and Rosamond Posey, a/k/a The White Angels.