Jimbo Mathus; “Like a Cadillac Driving Off a Cliff”
Posted On:I put a post up on Facebook today to inform our patrons that we would be closed tomorrow and to urge them to stay safe.
I included a photo of myself and Jimbo Mathus, and mentioned that he would be shortening his weekend here due to Isaac.
As an aside I said it had been a great day of music and that he would be back.
What I, in my haste, left out was to say was that it was one hell of a day of music, three scorching sets that combined blistering rock and roll, gut-bucket juke joint delta blues, barroom-weepers that would have George Jones reaching for a Kleenex, Tex Mex two-steppers, and a version of “Who Do You Love” that had not been heard in Key West since George Thorogood duck-walked on top of the bar at Fitzgerald’s.
Soundcheck was a jaw-dropping medley that caused one of our more astute music fans to lean over and mention in an obvious reference to the impending weather, “This is the perfect band for this weekend, like a Cadillac driving off a cliff”.
Add to this that on Thursday these guys drove 12 hours from Clarksdale, Mississippi to Bradfordsville, Florida, outside of Tallahassee, played their gig there till 2 am and by 5 am were on the road to Key west for the Parrot. They arrived at The Parrot a half-hour late due to what Jimbo said was the weather, the traffic, a breakdown and “the wreck” (not theirs). Even so, as one patron who watched them pull up out front told me, It took just under thirty minutes from the minute they stepped out from the van, to loaded in, set up, do their soundcheck, and strike their first chord. (This guy was timing them, a typical Parrot patron, gotta love it).
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Jimbo at The Parrot in 2006, our first webcam broadcast |
So here’s a band that’s been driving twenty-four out of 36 hours and then they do 3 90-minute pelvis-grinding, barn-burning sets and do not spare the horses. playing everything as Jimbo puts it. “from Jimmy Rodgers to Jimi Hendrix.”
And what a band 2 guitars, keyboard, bass and drums that knew exactly what their music was supposed to sound like. Were they loud? Well, yea. But did it hurt, well, no.
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Jimbo catching up on his reading |
I complimented Jimbo on his band after the first set and he said it had been six years since he had been to the Parrot and this band was the result of his six years of culling the best guys he could find from Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and God knows where else.
He’s dying to get back to the Parrot and make up for this lost time and as soon as we can book him we will. He’s a great talent and a great guy.
To learn a bit more about Jimbo Mathus here’s the press we put out on him last week:
Jimbo Mathus is a rising-star powerhouse that feeds the soul. His latest band, The Tri-State Coalition, features solid talent cut from the same Delta cloth. Mathus describes Tri-State’s sound as “…a true Southern amalgam of blues, white country, soul and rock‐n roll. As Dickinson would say, ‘If you don’t like this, there is seriously something wrong with you’.”
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Jimbo back home |
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Jimbo, looking a bit perplexed, onstage with Captain Conch, Stock Island Boy, Alice the Monkey |