Mood:
amorousTopic: Entertainment
Last Saturday night, I joined my friends to see Mississippi band, Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition. Before I was invited to come along, I had vaguely heard of Jimbo Mathus, but had never actually heard them. All I knew was that they performed bluesy-country music. Sounds good to me...
But their sound was great—more blues than country, with a whole lotta soul. It brought me back (to the old school, 'cause I'm an old fool)to about 8th grade, when I saw on of my favorite blues artists in concert—Jonny Lang.
Lang wasn't my first taste of blues—it was something I grew up hearing. But Lang was the first artist I liked on my own, without my parent's help. So my friend Ale and I, along with my mom, piled into an Indianapolis theatre to see our man. Once we got to our seats, I realized we had entered an entirely different world...and it was full of dudes in biking leathers.
It's no new concept that the music we like helps others put us into categories. I have always been thankful that I enjoy many different types of music, and I get to see all sorts of different people. So, there I realized that while I had been dancing in my room to "Lie To Me" (something I still do), there were burly men working on their bikes listening to the same thing.
On the flip side, there was Lang—a 17-year-old blues sensation (and he was looking damn good), which is incredibly young for any artist, but even younger in the blues' world. People seem to think only seasoned, older people know life well enough to sing the blues. But I think it's a genre open to all. And Jimbo Mathus definitely sings the blues.
After a little scan through Google, I learned a little about Jimbo. He grew up in Mississippi, listening to blues and later started a little project: The Squirrel Nut Zippers. Ummm hello? Who remembers them? Me! And who would've thought the man on the stage at Chelsea's was the guy who put that act together (an act that sold more than a million copies). But it gets better.
Mathus has worked with Elvis Costello and Buddy Guy—he even played guitar on Guy's 2001 album, Sweet Tea, which was a number one blues album. He did work on Guy's Grammy-winning record, Blues Singer and has traveled on tour to perform with him.
Mathus describes his current project (Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition) as "Mississippi Music," with a sound of "inner-planetary honky-tonk."
Whatever the label, I thoroughly enjoyed the music, and the performance in general. A good time was had by all. Check out Jimbo Mathus on Facebook here.
