Jimbo Mathus at Under the Volcano...

This past week me, Cathy and Ann caught Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition at a little night spot called Under the Volcano in Houston. It was a great gig. We have followed Jimbo for some time and he was on our must seen list. 

If you recall Jimbo was a member of a band that had some national acclaim in the mid 1990s called the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Nut Zipper is a southern term for moonshine. He is all over the place stylistically with his music from country, swing, blues, gospel and jug band.  These are southern guys from Mississippi and one thing that made this gig so great was their warmth and friendliness. 

Here Cathy gets a hug from Jimbo. Cathy is going to hug most people she meets and Jimbo is the same way. He said to her in his Mississippi drawl "Baby girl, yew doing all rite tonite?" Under the Volcano is a great listening room. The area in front of the band holds 50-75 people comfortably and has some bar stool seating. There is also a lounge area and looked to be an outside patio. I think Jimbo talked to everyone of the people there personally on the band's break. There is also a lounge area and looked to be an outside patio.    

Cathy continued her habit of stealing club posters. She got the one posted on the wall behind the band. Jimbo saw her take it and he moved all his merchandise off a road case set up as a table and dug out a different poster with the dates of the Houston gig and gave it to me. Note the nice worn Fender Mustang bass the bass player Stu has. He told me it was a 1976 model. That's the same year model as my Fender Strat. 

Here's a good evil eye I am Jamming out photo.

Jimbo was a very personable fellow. He was warm and welcoming but plain spoken. At one point he made the statement, "Lot of music out there is not about jack shit these days. My music might not be the prettiest but these songs are about something." He followed with a song about racial injustice. Me me glad I have followed this guy and supported him by buying his music.  

Speaking of support Ann and Cathy help Jimbo sell t shirts. Get you some Jimbo Mathus. He has a new cd out but the old stuff is good too. 

Jimbo Mathus and Them Durty Crooks...

We caught a show by Jimbo Mathus and his band Them Durty Crooks at Under the Volcano in Houston, Tx on a Sunday night. It was great and if you don't mind missing that evening Sunday service Jimbo and the boys make a righteous fill in. You may recall Jimbo made a platinum selling record, "Hot" in 1996 with the Squirrel Nut Zippers and recorded with Blues Guitarist Buddy Guy on his Grammy award winning album Blues Singer. SNZ is still in operation and we caught them for a New Year's Eve show in New Orleans several years ago. This was the second time we have seen Jimbo at Under the Volcano.  

If you check out his music or my blog post at the link on the SNZ you will find that Jimbo wears many musical personas. From the SNZ sound of cabaret, 1920s era swing to gypsy New Orleans jazz voodoo he shifts to a Memphis string band, Mississippi hill country blues or as in this performance just plain old country and rock like only southern boys from Mississippi, Memphis and Arkansas can play it. Lots of good country covers last night such as Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, Six Days on the Road, Third Rate Romance and a great but unusual funky version of Hank Williams Hey Good Lookin' in addition to his own hard rocking originals. Don't let anyone tell you this guy can't play guitar.      

For something different check out Jimbo. His latest release, Incinerator, seems to have some kind of "voice in the wilderness" message running through it. I guess because any music you encounter of his might seem so varied from one release to the other you may just have to check it all out. Not being easily put in a category sure makes it certain your music won't be sold at Walmart and with Jimbo that is probably ok. 

Squirrel Nut Zippers and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Temple Theater...

Once again the Angelina Arts Alliance really out did themselves with a show. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the Squirrel Nut Zippers came to town. Do you know how much money and time I've spent driving all over to catch these bands? We won't go into that right now but it's certainty nice that this is the caliber of music that's come to my town. Thanks again Arts Alliance!

I've guess I've seen the Dirty Dozen at least a couple of times and own several cds. They are the group, in operation since the late 1970s that took traditional New Orleans Brass Band music and incorporated bebop jazz, funk with R & B soul and made something totally new. Kirk Joseph, the sousaphone player gets credit as being the first modern sousaphone player, sounding more like an electric bass walking the riffs and using electronic effects such as a wah wah pedal to emphasize the funk. 

Other bands came along later adding Mardi Gras Indian beats and hip hop to the brass band style but the Dirty Dozen were the pioneers and the show was top notch.       

In fact the Dozen were so good it left me sitting and thinking that the SNZ are really going to have to bring it to match this but no need to worry. They had it to bring. 

A Squirrel Nut Zipper is a name for southern moonshine and also a candy bar that dates back the 1890s. Frontman Jimbo Mathus who has been operating he band since the 1990s and early 2000s when the band sold millions of records never has any trouble naming a project drawing on southern mythology to come up with projects like The Knock Down Society, National Antiseptic, The Tri State Coalition amd Beasts of the Sothern Wild. He's one of our favorites and in addition to a couple of SNZ shows we've caught Jimbo on a couple of shows playing great blues, country and Americana music.  

Jimbo reconstituted the band with new members about 2016.     

SNZ combines traditional jazz, gypsy music, swing and delta blues to make a high energy mix that makes you wonder why everyone is not playing these tunes and dancing.    

Jimbo is a national treasure. 

Dr. Sick who sings plays violin, banjo, guitar and uke is another high energy performer that has been a welcome addition to the group. People often ask me what to do in New Orleans. I say if he's not out with SNZ look up Dr. Sick on facebook and go to whatever show he is playing. He's somewhere every night of the week.  

Great music. 

Masks and devil horns. What show is complete till you have wore all these things? 

Of course the bands combined for a couple of tunes. 

Thanks again to the Angelina Arts Alliance for bringing these great bands.

 

 

Why You Watch Boring Music...?

You know I stalk ya'll. On the internet, I don't hang out in the bushes by your house very often. I could care less about your dog's photos or pictures of what you ate. I look at what you think about music. From this stalking I have gathered that the country music award winners were not country and that just lately someone mucked up the words to a song on national TV. Now I don't feel qualified to define what's country and I have certainly stood up in public, spiritually naked with only three chords, a guitar and just frigged that up something righteous. This weekend on New Year's Eve I was at a club called One Eyed Jacks on Toulouse Street in New Orleans and saw the Squirrel Nut Zippers who I don't think hit a wrong note at all. 

One Eye Jacks is a place I have been a couple of times now. In addition to music it hosts regular 1930s type burlesque shows, one of which opened the show. Pretty tame burlesque compared to TV these days. Might not want to bring your mom but you would surely feel comfortable with a cousin. The decor of the place is an erotic Storyville Red that harks back to the old cat houses of turn of the century birth of jazz New Orleans. If you glance real quick past the staircase you can easily imagine old school big leg fancy girls lounging lazy on the steps with a Southern Comfort neat in a slim glass.  

If you don't know the Squirrel Nut Zippers here they are. 

It's a bit of a blurry photo but there is a lot of dancing and prancing movements going on in a band that plays what I would describe as a blend of delta blues, cabaret, 1930 swing, gypsy and dixieland. Nut zipper is an old southern term for moonshine. A squirrel nut was a caramel candy from the 1890s. This group had a platinum seller in 1996  but has been only sparingly active in the 2000s. The only original members are Jimbo Mathus and drummer Chris Phillips. 

You might remember Jimbo. We saw and met him a couple of years ago in Houston. A really great show of Americana music that time but with the Zippers all stops are pulled out. One of the best showman I have recently seen and maybe considering the areas of the American songbook that are dawn on maybe best ever. 

If you say "banjo, must be bluegrass" you are wrong. That's a tenor. See Banjo Bill if you need to know more. 

Having met with Jimbo I can say he's a polite Mississippi southern gentleman. He's nice to your girl when you introduce him to her.

Here's a guy to keep an eye on. Calls himself Dr. Sick and his main instrument for the evening was violin. He played it like a madman dancing rocking and high kicking all over that stage. He's on banjo here but also played musical saw and guitar. 

New Year toast. 

The second set this band performed this evening was all new songs. Expect a new release soon. Get it. Don't listen to boring music. 

   

Hey! I Like Bedlam Too...

 I recall once when my son Morgan was in college I paid him a visit at his place and as we sat talking his music played from a laptop. It was a nice evening enhanced by the vibe of good tunes and I was proud my son had such great taste. I asked about where he was hearing and acquiring his music and he said, "I ripped it all from your cds." Well I do have an extensive library of records and cds and sometimes I forget what's in it. One thing for sure, my soon to be four year old grandson Ezra is not going to let me forget that I have a copy of Bedlam Ballroom by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. 

If you don't know the Zippers they are a band formed back in 1993 and combine 1930s swing with a weird old America carnival atmosphere and older musical forms such as blues, gypsy jazz and klezmer. The band is led by Jimbo Mathus and has had some on and off periods but a reconstituted combo has been back releasing new music since 2016. We saw the Zippers with Scott, Ellen, Suzi and Charlie on New Years Eve 2016/2017 in New Orleans. Me and Cathy have also seen Jimbo on his own twice. He's a national treasure. 

Bedlam Ballroom opens with Gene Krupa style drumming. It's a heavy swinging jungle beat with thudding toms that gives away to a bossa nova swing. It's nice we have the drum set in this room as Ezra can work on his feel for that kind of riff. When the singing starts he then begins lip syncing the words like he was in Milli Vanilli. The brilliant neon colors of the cd cover are an eye catcher for him and he's had Cathy make a couple of copies to go. 

Reviews of this cd were a bit lukewarm when it came out and the band broke up afterwards but we only care about what we think and me and Ezra think this album was good. 

Also playing on Bedlam Ballroom was violinist Andrew Bird. Jimbo and Andrew have out a new release as a duo and I will be watching for tour dates. 

So one of these days Ezra will be all grown up and I'll be a feeble old man and I'll marvel that he listens to great music. Music is a seed planted that continues to grow. 

 

  

Amp Trends...

I'm always noticing the gear bands use and I think I have noticed a trend in the Fender amps bands use. 

Fender Musical Instruments, which started producing amps in 1945 went through a series of amps all easily identified by their cosmetics. There were the "woodie" amps then the tweed, the brown and blond and next the blackface which were made from 1963 to 1968 and are still widely used by players onstage as vintage originals and modern reissues. Then there are the Silver faces made from 1967 through 1981. Seems I am seeing more silver faces onstage these days. 

They may be modern reissues but all the fender amps were known for a sound. Earlier models were known to get quite nasty in a good way as you cranked them up. By the late 60s as venues became larger and bands needed to be louder Fender came up with the silver face to be clean sounding and loud as piss. I own two silver face Fender amps. 

I saw this band, Locos Por Junta, with members from Columbia, Argentina, Venezuela and the USA  at Festival International. It was Latin/Reggae very danceable and certainly modern in the fact the claimed to have no cds. Only way you could get their music was by downloads. The guitar player used a silver face Fender. I was too far away to identify the model but there it was.       

I kind of thought the trombone players were cute but a tall handsome guitar player, hair to the waist and a gold top Les Paul guitar what is not to like? 

Also at the fest was Robert Finley. A long toiling in obscurity Louisiana blues musician Robert has had music produced by Jimbo Mathus (to appear with the Squirrel Nut Zippers at the Angelina Arts Alliance Temple Theater show in October) and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.     

Guess what? Roberts guitar player had a silver face Fender amp. 

Last week I caught the Malpass Brothers show at the Pines Theater in Lufkin, Tx. Guess what? again silver face Fender amps. That's the sound you have heard on all the old country hits of the late 60s and the 70s though the last time I saw Merle Haggard who had a few of those hits he was playing through a tweed and sounded pretty scronchy. It was only a few months before his death.  

One thing I have noticed in the modern digital age is when some influencer mentions a certain piece of guitar gear on the internet the price goes through the roof. 

Did I mention I owned two silver face Fender amps? I have had them longer than they were old when I bought them and probably won't get rid of them anytime soon. 

  

 

The Late Afternoon After the Rain Fishing Trip...

Some one mentioned to me this weekend "seems like the blog has slowed down some." I guess I could go into greater detail about what I'm up to. Cathy will hate that. She thinks it's too much already. I could just make up stuff. Some think I do that too. One thing I do do (I know you thought it was a family blog) is go cat fishing. What the world needs now is one more photo of Cathy holding a cat fish. Well here it is. 

It rained yesterday. Almost all day and some reported up to 5 inches. When it quit we headed to the lake. We hit up an old reliable sport  first but with the wind from the north east (I know fish bite least) it put the boat in a different position. Either the fish were not there or we just could not get a hook to them so we headed out to a new spot that we caught a few fish at last trip and it paid off. They were there. 

If you are familiar with our tactics you know we chum for cats with soured grain. They smell it and it concentrates them where we want to cast. Won't work just anywhere because the cats have to be close by on some fishy underwater structure. I think one of those structures was right behind the boat because I caught them there and it was not the spot I tossed the chum. 

We won't say who caught the most today but I think they could not see me because of the camo shirt. 

Lots of critters spotted today. Gators, big turtles, wood ducks, great blue herons and the white herons, osprey eagles, and song birds of all types. As darkness fell in the photo above my rod tip points to the far bank where something started howling.  

Cathy covers in a Mexican blanket for the after dark ride across the lake. You know how those fancy bass fishermen wear those sponsor shirts and have wraps on their boats? We are going to go for this kind of sponsorship. I think we will contact Carlos Castenada, Jimbo Mathis and the Knockdown Society and Creek Bottom Smith to see if they want a piece of this action.  

One of the kids commented on a facebook photo that "the old man is going to die in a boat, happy." I was glad happy was attached to that. Ok, there are those out there that have been there done that and made the after dark run across Big Sam with me hair flying and not looking where I going too many times. Is this what they mean? 

Final count was 40 catfish. Most were a little below average size. Still a lot of male fish. Big females not in the shallow water yet. We put 7 pounds of fillets in the freezer and fried and ate 2 pounds right out of the skillet with hot sauce as the only side dish.