James "Jimbo" Mathus 
Photo right: Jimbo Mathus with Rosetta Patton
Brown
Major Works
- Beyond the Java Sea (1991)
- The Inevitable (1995)
- Hot (1997)
- Roasted Right (1997)
- Sold Out (1997)
- Perennial Favorites (1998)
- Christmas Caravan (1998)
- "Hell"(1999)
- "Put a Lid on It" (1999)
- Jas. Mathus and his Knock-Down Society Play Songs
for Rosetta 1997
- Thrills
- Stop and Let the Devil Ride 2003
- National Antiseptic 2001
- Bowl of Fire 2005
- Knockdown South 2005
- Old Scool Hot Wings 2006
- Jimmy the Kid 2006
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Jimbo Mathus:
A Biography
By Chandler Arick (SHS) 2001
James "Jimbo" Mathus was born and raised in Clarksdale,
Mississippi, where he often spent time listening to blues
music in the Mississippi Delta. Mathus joined a band called
Metal Flake Mother until he met Katharine Whalen.
Mathus and Whalen were married, and James taught Katharine how
to play the banjo.
 In 1993 James and Katharine left Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and started a band called Squirrel Nut Zippers, playing big band style swing music. They attained the name Squirrel Nut Zippers
from James's favorite candy bar. The band became a strong musical
act in the South. Mathus, however, has not limited his music to the
South. He played at President Bill Clinton's 1992 inauguration. Squirrel Nut Zippers even had their own brand of coffee.
When
Mathus came back to Clarksdale in 1996, he made a CD to help
Rosetta Patton, widow of Charley Patton, with whom Mathus had
been friends since he was a child. Jas. Mathus and the Knock-Down Society Play Songs for Rosetta
is Mathus’s tribute to both Rose and her famous father. The money from
the CD was enough to pay her utilities for a year, and now he is
working on paying for Rosetta's granddaughter's tuition to college. 
To make the recording, Mathus rounded up a group of friends
and acquaintances and headed for Clarksdale. Joining
Mathus on the CD are fellow Zipper Stu Cole, part-time Zipper
Andrew Bird, Greg Bell (Chicken Wire Gang), Gut-Bucket
(Cody
Dickinson, Paul Taylor, Luther Dickinson), John Sinclair and
Michael "Hawkeye" Jordan on mandolin. They don't play
together regularly but they sound as if they've been together for
years. Gut-Bucket is an exceptionally talented trio that features
the sons of the famed Memphis producer/pianist Jim Dickinson.
They are part of the now well known band called the North Mississippi
All-Stars. The only straight Patton song "Some Of These Days,"
comes on the last track with a reminiscence written by
Roebuck "Pops" Staples and read by New Orleans DJ John
Sinclair. Staples is a well-respected blues guitarist and
his narrative offers a view into the world of street musicians
and house parties in the Delta during the early part of the
century. Then Mathus and Bird (on fiddle) perform the Patton tune.
 Jimbo
Mathus was also a guest musician as part of the Carrboro Horns
- (Jimbo Mathus, Tom Maxwell, Ken Mosher, and Je Widenhouse
of the Squirrel Nut Zippers) on the first full-length Hobex
CD "Back in the '90's," which was released in the spring of
'98. The song "Groove, Baby" received heavy airplay on North
Carolina triangle radio station G105 for almost a year. Mathus
also performs on "Wisteria," the third Hobex CD from Phrex
records, available through North Carolina-based Redeye distribution.
The second half of "Wisteria" is from an acoustic back porch
session recorded by Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers
and the trio of Andy Ware (bass,) Mathus (guitar,) and
Greg Humphreys (guitar and vocals). They do some of Greg Humphreys's
quieter tunes as well as a Mathus tune, "Stop Startin' Over,"
and a Sam Cooke/J.W. Alexander cover, "That's Where It's At."
James Mathus plays a variety of instruments including guitar
and trombone and also sings. His music is a mixture of
swing, new age jazz, and calypso with his band Squirrel
Nut Zippers, but he performs with numerous other groups
as well, including that of his wife Katharine Whalen and her
band, the Jazz Squad (composed of a Zippers Mathus, bassist
Stu Cole, and trumpet player Je Widenhouse) who cut an album
of vintage jazz nuggets (as well as one original, "Badisma,"
by Mathus) in the downtime after touring in support of one of
the Squirrel Nut Zippers records.
Photo above: SHS researcher Chandler
Arick
2010 UPDATE: In additions to his work with
the Squirrel Nut Zippers, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
Jim Mathus has pursued projects outside of the group (often
under variations of his name, including James Mathus, Jas Mathus,
Jimbo "Hambone" Mathus, and Jimbo Mathus). He worked
with Andrew Bird on albums Thrills
and Bowl of Fire. In 1997, Mathus,
bassist Stu Cole, Mike Napolitano, and pianist Greg Bell formed
the Knockdown Society and released Play Songs for
Rosetta, a collection of bluesman Charley Patton's
songs to benefit Patton's daughter Rosetta and her family. In
late 2001 Mathus released National Antiseptic,
a tribute to the electric juke joint swamp rock of the Deep
South. This album was followed by Stop and Let the
Devil Ride in 2003, and two years later Knockdown
South. Mathus returned to the acoustic roots of
Mississippi blues and country with Old Scool Hot
Wings in 2006. Also in 2006, under the name Jimbo
Mathus, the album Jimmy the Kid was
released by Artemis Records. (Source: Heather Phares, All Music
Guide). In addition, Mathus played a key role in Buddy Guy's
Sweet Tea (2001) and Grammy winning
Blues Singer (2004) as guitarist and
arranger, and contributed vocals on North Mississippi Allstars
2006 Grammy nominated Electric Blues Watermelon.
In March 2010, Jimbo Mathus presented his musical Mosquitoville:
Mississippi Songs and Stories at the Panola Playhouse
in Sardis. He plans to take the production on the road around
the state. Mathus, the leader of the TriState Coalition and
the owner of the Delta Recording Service in Como, Mississippi,
says the musical Mosquitoville is
based on local history around the 1880's in Quitman County.
The story is based on a journal kept by a man named John Parrot
from Sledge, Mississippi, who worked at a lumber camp north
of South Lake called Mosquitoville. The show includes a six-piece
band and a six-piece chorus who perform indigenous music as
well as music by Sid Hemphill, Stephen Foster, Jimmie Rodgers
and others (Source: Scott Baretta. The Clarion-Ledger. March
4, 2010). Mathus hopes to help Mississippians appreciate their
musical heritage.
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Related
Websites
Read
about Jimbo's relationship with Rosetta Patton here. 
Web site
with all kinds of info about the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
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Bibliography
"Squirrel Nut Zippers." Excite Music. 19 April 2000. http://music.excite.com/artist/biography/6103
"Squirrel Nut Zippers." All Music. 17 April 2000. http://allmusic.com/cg/x.
Edgerton, Catherine. "The Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Hot Band in the Hall." 1997-2000. Dream/Girl Magazine. 25 April 2000. http://www.dgarts.com/content/musesnz.htm
Knight, John. "Jas. Mathus and the Knock-Down Society." The Music Monitor. 25 April 2000. http://pendulumic.com/MM/February/jimbomathus.html
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