Country Fried Rock 1229: Jimbo Mathus on Mississippi Punk to Mandolins to Blues
Summary
From 2012: Jimbo Mathus hops onto the Country Fried Rock stage, bringing a whirlwind of musical tales and soulful reflections that are as rich as a Mississippi mud pie. Right off the bat, he dives into the heart of creativity, revealing how his upbringing in the vibrant musical landscape of northeast Mississippi shaped his artistic journey. With a background steeped in family harmonies and raucous jam sessions fueled by cheap beer, Jimbo paints a picture of a life where music wasn’t just a hobby; it was the family business. He chats about his evolution from strumming mandolins as a kid to fronting one of Mississippi's first punk bands, showcasing a colorful tapestry of influences that range from blues legends to punk rock pioneers. As they meander through stories of juke joints, the beauty of original songwriting, and the importance of staying true to one’s roots, it becomes clear that Jimbo’s journey is not just a personal odyssey but a celebration of the Southern spirit and the transformative power of music.
Show Notes
Growing Up Mississippi Style
• Jimbo Mathus paints a vivid picture of his childhood in Northeast Mississippi
• Remembers chaotic and joyful family gatherings filled with music, cheap beer, and loud harmonies
• Shares how early exposure to banjos, mandolins, and gospel traditions lit the spark for a lifetime of music
Mandolins to Punk Rock
• Talks about learning the mandolin as a kid and the musical encouragement he got at home
• Reflects on forming one of Mississippi’s first punk bands, Johnny Vomit in the Dry Heat
• Discusses the challenges of building a punk scene in small-town Mississippi in the 1980s
Musical Identity and Evolution
• Shares his journey from punk to embracing blues, Southern rock, and traditional roots music
• Talks about the influence of Robert Johnson, Bill Monroe, and how those legends shaped his sound
• Emphasizes the importance of originality and blending genres in his songwriting
The Songwriting Craft
• Describes songwriting as a lifelong craft shaped by personal history and family tradition
• Highlights the role of Southern storytelling and creative persistence in his process
• Reflects on how returning home to Mississippi has deepened his artistic connection to place and people
Collaborations and Current Projects
• Talks about working with blues legend Buddy Guy and what that experience meant to him
• Gives a sneak peek into his upcoming album, White Buffalo, focused on cultural symbolism and storytelling
• Explains how he approaches new projects with intention and a desire to stay authentic
A Conversation That Feels Like Home
• The episode flows like a casual hangout on the porch with a good friend
• Filled with humor, insight, and heartfelt storytelling
• Jimbo’s passion for music, roots, and community shines throughout
Why You’ll Want to Listen
• Get to know the man behind the music, from punk pioneer to roots revivalist
• Discover how Jimbo blends rebellion with tradition to create something uniquely Southern
• Hear stories that reflect the deeper meaning behind the songs and the culture that inspires them
Tune in to hear Jimbo Mathus open up about the roads he’s traveled, the music he’s made, and the heart behind White Buffalo. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Links
- REMINDER: IGNORE ALL LINKS OR EVENTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE FROM 2012
- Toss a few in our Tip Jar!
- Jimbo Mathus
- Jimbo Mathus on Bandcamp
- You may also enjoy this conversation with Tara Nevins of Donna the Buffalo from 2012
Takeaways
- Jimbo Mathus shares his nostalgic memories of growing up around music in Mississippi, highlighting the family gatherings that shaped his artistic spirit.
- The podcast dives into how Jimbo transitioned from a punk rock scene to embracing traditional Southern music, blending both influences in his creative journey.
- Listeners get a glimpse of Jimbo's philosophy on recording music, emphasizing the importance of capturing authentic performances without relying on modern tech fixes.
- Jimbo discusses the profound connection between Southern literature and music, revealing how family history and storytelling play a crucial role in his songwriting process.
- The conversation touches on the significance of the juke joint culture in the South as a unique space for musical expression and community bonding.
- Jimbo talks about his upcoming album White Buffalo, inspired by a rare buffalo's death and its cultural symbolism, showcasing his commitment to authentic storytelling through music.
Chapters
- 00:09 - Introducing Jimbo Mathus
- 00:59 - The Journey into Music and Identity
- 14:10 - The Journey to Artistic Discovery
- 20:59 - Returning to Roots: The Mississippi Connection
- 27:54 - The Evolution of Musical Expression
- 31:24 - The Significance of the White Buffalo
Mentioned in this Episode
- Country Fried Rock
- Nuci's Space
- Goner Records
- Squirrel Nut Zippers
- Big Legal Mess
Recommended If You Like
Country Fried Rock, Jimbo Mathus interview, Southern music inspiration, creativity in songwriting, Mississippi music scene, original music production, juke joint culture, blues music history, punk rock in Mississippi, Southern literary tradition, music and family heritage, Americana music podcast, Country Fried Rock podcast, mental health in music, Nuci's Space nonprofit, music production techniques, songwriting process, Southern culture and art, vinyl record production, creative collaboration in music, squirrel nut zippers
Transcript
Speaker A
Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity. Country Fried Rock music uncovered.
My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Jimbo Mathis, who's been in the music scene for a while and continues to create and push his own limits. Morning, Jimbo. Thanks for being with us.
Speaker B
Good morning. How are you?
Speaker A
I am fantastic. It is bright and early for a musician. I thank you for being with us.
Speaker B
I get up with the chicken.
Speaker A
You got yardbirds?
Speaker B
Yes, ma'. Am. You know it.
Speaker A
Are they pretty ones or country ones?
Speaker B
They are country ones. They're a little raggly. They gotta fight for their right to stay alive around here. Good talking with you.
Speaker A
Absolutely. You too. You too. Well, this has been a treat because your name has been brought up repeatedly throughout our show, but really more for your producing.
Speaker B
Right? I'm so glad.
Yeah, I did a lot of producing over the past five years, you know, helping other artists out and helping them get their sound like they needed it.
Speaker A
As I started to do a little bit of research, I realized we could talk about all different kinds of things. So let's set the stage a little bit for how you first started getting into music, like, as a little kid. What were you into?
Speaker B
Yeah, well, I grew up with music in the house, you know, with my father, my uncles, my cousins. This is. I'm talking about northeast Mississippi, in the hill country of Mississippi during the 70s and 80s. So, yeah, we had banjos, mandolins.
I first got attached to the mandolin when I was about six and I started learning the rudiments, you know, all instruments. We had a lot of harmony singing.
And music was just a part of our house and it was a part of our weekends, you know, and just what the family did, it's some of the most fond memories, you know, you can have, really. Just watching grownups get tanked on cheap beer and, like, singing like angels, you know, it's great when you're six years old.
And they always encouraged me.
And so that's how I got into it was really more from just the joy and the family aspect of it and then before, you know, ever realizing there was a business part of it.
Speaker A
Sure. Well, at what point did that expand for you beyond just what you were doing with your family?
Speaker B
High school, you know, I started branching out and wanted. I got an electric guitar and an amplifier and, you know, and wanted to rock. This is in Corinth, Mississippi.
So actually, I had one of the very first punk rock bands in the state of Mississippi, you know, in the early 80s, called Johnny Vomit in the Dry Heat.
Speaker A
Great name.
Speaker B
And we had some 45, you know, that you can find out there that are on goner records. That would be my first recorded evidence would be Johnny Vomit in the Dry Heaves.
Speaker A
And so what sort of punk were you all?
Speaker B
We were backwoods Mississippi punk. We basically had to make up our own scene. I think we saw rock and Roll High School on, you know, HBO when we finally got cable in the 80s.
And that's when we realized that there was a thing called punk rock. We jumped in head first when we were teenagers.
But then I really just always kind of latched on to original things, things that were different, things that were original, as well as embracing like the traditional stuff. I still do the same. You know, the traditional stuff is like my bible. And the new and the different that just comes from being a songwriter.
And I've pushed to always have my own compositions. That's what I'm usually playing, you know, for the public.
Speaker A
Several great musician friends of Country Fried Rock generously donated songs for a free music sampler.
Download it at noise trade.com countryfriedrock 19 songs to help raise awareness and money for Nucci's Space, a nonprofit serving the mental health needs of musicians in the Athens, Georgia area. Find out more about Nucci's at n u c I.org from right away you were writing your own stuff?
Speaker B
Yes, ma'. Am. I got started writing my own stuff right away after high school.
I continued to do that and just something finally just clicked in my late teens and early twenties where I was able to just start writing on my own stuff. And I've done that ever since.
Speaker A
Is that something that just flows for you?
Speaker B
It does now. I just look at. It was this like a habit thing, you know, I mean, I had encouragement in music and I had encouragement in my family.
All through the generations are known as writers and musicians and different kind of eccentrics. So I've got a. They're also real smart. And so, I mean, just crazy smart people that scare you, you know. So I've got this kind of weird streak.
So I practiced doing it. I just. It kind of came out of me then over the years after doing it so long.
Now it's just a habit thing, you know, I can do it pretty easily as far as the composing, writing, latching onto ideas and kind of elaborating on them. It's like carpentry or something to make it, you know, it's. Or working on a carburetor. It's just habit and it's Pretty easy.
Speaker A
Does that tie into like a Southern literary tradition for you?
Speaker B
It really did. Big time. Big time. I've got authors in my family. Well, all of my family is based in Mississippi in the Deep South.
You know, I mean, that's three generations. As soon as they were settling in Mississippi, we were here. Yeah.
It really does tie in memoirs, kind of eccentric uncles and cousins who did memoirs, who did essays, poetry and this kind of thing.
Speaker A
When did you discover some of those writings?
Speaker B
I discovered all this stuff as a child.
You know, I was always into genealogy of the family, and I was always into digging around in the great grandmother's boxes and finding postcards and stuff, you know, asking questions about these things. You know, I started taking notes on the family genealogy, you know, when I was just, you know, I have.
I have notebooks that I kept and going through the family Bibles and stuff. So it's a. It is a Southern literary mindset very much.
And that's tied into our history as well into our music, you know, as far as the musical side, you know, my father was real stickler and a great memory for lyrics, you know, and he would know all the verses to everything. And he's just got this incredible photographic memory for. For song lyric.
And so I was brought up with all the proper lyrics, 22 verses for John Henry.
Speaker A
Wow.
Speaker B
You know, or whatever. There's a certain number that we knew. And it's like. Like I said, it's like the canon of the Bible. You learn it and then you know.
Speaker A
It with the literary influence and then combined with the history and tradition of the musical history of the Deep South. Where did it lead for you?
Speaker B
Oh, well, I mean, it just, you know, that's just being a kid with a lot of testosterone, you know, and been zits, you know. So I mean, I just kept really at this. I just kept on the same path, really.
I know it seems sort of chaotic if you look through my catalog, but the whole time I was studying Bill Monroe, I was learning how to play Robert Johnson, I was learning how to play Charlie Patton.
There's things that I didn't grow up with that I continually, as I got older and was able to say, go to record stores and find a Elmore James record or find a Louis Armstrong record or something, and just pretty coincidence, and started getting out into the bigger world and being able to travel to Atlanta and in other areas and see more of the world and go to, you know, Chapel Hill and look through the music stores and hear the college stations. I was. Grew up in a Very rural. I mean, we were. It could have been the 1950s in my town.
So there were no computers there, you know, very little access to anything. I had the same teachers in high school that my dad had had.
Speaker A
Right.
Speaker B
And they confused us, you know, they were, like, senile. You know, this was. There was like Lone Ranger was on tv, you know. So I got out and began to travel on my own.
And I was very curious about the art scene in the world, the music scene. And I just kept putting it to two and two together.
Kept realizing as time went on how everything really tied back into Mississippi anyway, for me, through Faulkner, through the blues, through the history of slavery, Civil War history, and everything that's tied in just kept pointing me back as I looked further and further around and kind of saw what America was all about. I just really kept on a pretty steady path through reading and through the music.
Speaker A
And literally, I mean, because you ended up back there.
Speaker B
Correct. Correct. Hey, everybody, you're listening to Jimbo Mathis here on Country Fried Rock.
And be sure and look me up on JimboMathis.com J I M B O M A T H U S what.
Speaker A
Was continuing to push you creatively with.
Speaker B
That, that point in time? Just discovery, you know, finding out all these other things about art, theater, music and in the Chapel Hill scene.
See, I relocated myself up there in the late 80s, and I was drawn to groups that were. I thought, were unique. Like, well, REM I know they had a very literary bent, studiousness in his lyrics.
But also groups like Southern Culture on the Skids, who were like, really celebrating, hey, we're Big Old Red, you know, and groups like Flat Duo Jet and who were very roots oriented, would do things like Benny Goodman music, you know, and they kind of made it. They fit it all into a rockabilly, you know, Southern thing.
I got encouragement for that and I was like, aha, here's a Southern new generation of people that are putting something together. And this is where I'm heading, you know, and this is my mindset.
So I really identified with that in Chapel Hill and then the Athens scene and the people kind of looking back and doing cool stuff and knew what they were doing. So I think that attracted me to that area and that really got me started with the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Speaker A
You mentioned briefly about record stores in the role that they played, especially at that time in music discovery.
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker A
Was there a bootleg that really got you or just something that was new to you that was like your Aha.
Speaker B
Album, You know, I would have to say it would be REM like when I was in high school, I saw them on...
Transcript
Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity.
Speaker A:Country Fried Rock music uncovered.
Speaker A:My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Jimbo Mathis, who's been in the music scene for a while and continues to create and push his own limits.
Speaker A:Morning, Jimbo.
Speaker A:Thanks for being with us.
Speaker B:Good morning.
Speaker B:How are you?
Speaker A:I am fantastic.
Speaker A:It is bright and early for a musician.
Speaker A:I thank you for being with us.
Speaker B:I get up with the chicken.
Speaker A:You got yardbirds?
Speaker B:Yes, ma'.
Speaker B:Am.
Speaker B:You know it.
Speaker A:Are they pretty ones or country ones?
Speaker B:They are country ones.
Speaker B:They're a little raggly.
Speaker B:They gotta fight for their right to stay alive around here.
Speaker B:Good talking with you.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:You too.
Speaker A:You too.
Speaker A:Well, this has been a treat because your name has been brought up repeatedly throughout our show, but really more for your producing.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:I'm so glad.
Speaker B:Yeah, I did a lot of producing over the past five years, you know, helping other artists out and helping them get their sound like they needed it.
Speaker A:As I started to do a little bit of research, I realized we could talk about all different kinds of things.
Speaker A:So let's set the stage a little bit for how you first started getting into music, like, as a little kid.
Speaker A:What were you into?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, I grew up with music in the house, you know, with my father, my uncles, my cousins.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker B:I'm talking about northeast Mississippi, in the hill country of Mississippi during the 70s and 80s.
Speaker B:So, yeah, we had banjos, mandolins.
Speaker B:I first got attached to the mandolin when I was about six and I started learning the rudiments, you know, all instruments.
Speaker B:We had a lot of harmony singing.
Speaker B:And music was just a part of our house and it was a part of our weekends, you know, and just what the family did, it's some of the most fond memories, you know, you can have, really.
Speaker B:Just watching grownups get tanked on cheap beer and, like, singing like angels, you know, it's great when you're six years old.
Speaker B:And they always encouraged me.
Speaker B:And so that's how I got into it was really more from just the joy and the family aspect of it and then before, you know, ever realizing there was a business part of it.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:Well, at what point did that expand for you beyond just what you were doing with your family?
Speaker B:High school, you know, I started branching out and wanted.
Speaker B:I got an electric guitar and an amplifier and, you know, and wanted to rock.
Speaker B:This is in Corinth, Mississippi.
Speaker B:So actually, I had one of the very first punk rock bands in the state of Mississippi, you know, in the early 80s, called Johnny Vomit in the Dry Heat.
Speaker A:Great name.
Speaker B:And we had some 45, you know, that you can find out there that are on goner records.
Speaker B:That would be my first recorded evidence would be Johnny Vomit in the Dry Heaves.
Speaker A:And so what sort of punk were you all?
Speaker B:We were backwoods Mississippi punk.
Speaker B:We basically had to make up our own scene.
Speaker B:I think we saw rock and Roll High School on, you know, HBO when we finally got cable in the 80s.
Speaker B:And that's when we realized that there was a thing called punk rock.
Speaker B:We jumped in head first when we were teenagers.
Speaker B:But then I really just always kind of latched on to original things, things that were different, things that were original, as well as embracing like the traditional stuff.
Speaker B:I still do the same.
Speaker B:You know, the traditional stuff is like my bible.
Speaker B:And the new and the different that just comes from being a songwriter.
Speaker B:And I've pushed to always have my own compositions.
Speaker B:That's what I'm usually playing, you know, for the public.
Speaker A:Several great musician friends of Country Fried Rock generously donated songs for a free music sampler.
Speaker A:Download it at noise trade.com countryfriedrock 19 songs to help raise awareness and money for Nucci's Space, a nonprofit serving the mental health needs of musicians in the Athens, Georgia area.
Speaker A:Find out more about Nucci's at n u c I.org from right away you were writing your own stuff?
Speaker B:Yes, ma'.
Speaker B:Am.
Speaker B:I got started writing my own stuff right away after high school.
Speaker B:I continued to do that and just something finally just clicked in my late teens and early twenties where I was able to just start writing on my own stuff.
Speaker B:And I've done that ever since.
Speaker A:Is that something that just flows for you?
Speaker B:It does now.
Speaker B:I just look at.
Speaker B:It was this like a habit thing, you know, I mean, I had encouragement in music and I had encouragement in my family.
Speaker B:All through the generations are known as writers and musicians and different kind of eccentrics.
Speaker B:So I've got a.
Speaker B:They're also real smart.
Speaker B:And so, I mean, just crazy smart people that scare you, you know.
Speaker B:So I've got this kind of weird streak.
Speaker B:So I practiced doing it.
Speaker B:I just.
Speaker B:It kind of came out of me then over the years after doing it so long.
Speaker B:Now it's just a habit thing, you know, I can do it pretty easily as far as the composing, writing, latching onto ideas and kind of elaborating on them.
Speaker B:It's like carpentry or something to make it, you know, it's.
Speaker B:Or working on a carburetor.
Speaker B:It's just habit and it's Pretty easy.
Speaker A:Does that tie into like a Southern literary tradition for you?
Speaker B:It really did.
Speaker B:Big time.
Speaker B:Big time.
Speaker B:I've got authors in my family.
Speaker B:Well, all of my family is based in Mississippi in the Deep South.
Speaker B:You know, I mean, that's three generations.
Speaker B:As soon as they were settling in Mississippi, we were here.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It really does tie in memoirs, kind of eccentric uncles and cousins who did memoirs, who did essays, poetry and this kind of thing.
Speaker A:When did you discover some of those writings?
Speaker B:I discovered all this stuff as a child.
Speaker B:You know, I was always into genealogy of the family, and I was always into digging around in the great grandmother's boxes and finding postcards and stuff, you know, asking questions about these things.
Speaker B:You know, I started taking notes on the family genealogy, you know, when I was just, you know, I have.
Speaker B:I have notebooks that I kept and going through the family Bibles and stuff.
Speaker B:So it's a.
Speaker B:It is a Southern literary mindset very much.
Speaker B:And that's tied into our history as well into our music, you know, as far as the musical side, you know, my father was real stickler and a great memory for lyrics, you know, and he would know all the verses to everything.
Speaker B:And he's just got this incredible photographic memory for.
Speaker B:For song lyric.
Speaker B:And so I was brought up with all the proper lyrics, 22 verses for John Henry.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:You know, or whatever.
Speaker B:There's a certain number that we knew.
Speaker B:And it's like.
Speaker B:Like I said, it's like the canon of the Bible.
Speaker B:You learn it and then you know.
Speaker A:It with the literary influence and then combined with the history and tradition of the musical history of the Deep South.
Speaker A:Where did it lead for you?
Speaker B:Oh, well, I mean, it just, you know, that's just being a kid with a lot of testosterone, you know, and been zits, you know.
Speaker B:So I mean, I just kept really at this.
Speaker B:I just kept on the same path, really.
Speaker B:I know it seems sort of chaotic if you look through my catalog, but the whole time I was studying Bill Monroe, I was learning how to play Robert Johnson, I was learning how to play Charlie Patton.
Speaker B:There's things that I didn't grow up with that I continually, as I got older and was able to say, go to record stores and find a Elmore James record or find a Louis Armstrong record or something, and just pretty coincidence, and started getting out into the bigger world and being able to travel to Atlanta and in other areas and see more of the world and go to, you know, Chapel Hill and look through the music stores and hear the college stations.
Speaker B:I was.
Speaker B:Grew up in a Very rural.
Speaker B:I mean, we were.
Speaker B: It could have been the: Speaker B:So there were no computers there, you know, very little access to anything.
Speaker B:I had the same teachers in high school that my dad had had.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And they confused us, you know, they were, like, senile.
Speaker B:You know, this was.
Speaker B:There was like Lone Ranger was on tv, you know.
Speaker B:So I got out and began to travel on my own.
Speaker B:And I was very curious about the art scene in the world, the music scene.
Speaker B:And I just kept putting it to two and two together.
Speaker B:Kept realizing as time went on how everything really tied back into Mississippi anyway, for me, through Faulkner, through the blues, through the history of slavery, Civil War history, and everything that's tied in just kept pointing me back as I looked further and further around and kind of saw what America was all about.
Speaker B:I just really kept on a pretty steady path through reading and through the music.
Speaker A:And literally, I mean, because you ended up back there.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker B:Hey, everybody, you're listening to Jimbo Mathis here on Country Fried Rock.
Speaker B:And be sure and look me up on JimboMathis.com J I M B O M A T H U S what.
Speaker A:Was continuing to push you creatively with.
Speaker B:That, that point in time?
Speaker B:Just discovery, you know, finding out all these other things about art, theater, music and in the Chapel Hill scene.
Speaker B:See, I relocated myself up there in the late 80s, and I was drawn to groups that were.
Speaker B:I thought, were unique.
Speaker B:Like, well, REM I know they had a very literary bent, studiousness in his lyrics.
Speaker B:But also groups like Southern Culture on the Skids, who were like, really celebrating, hey, we're Big Old Red, you know, and groups like Flat Duo Jet and who were very roots oriented, would do things like Benny Goodman music, you know, and they kind of made it.
Speaker B:They fit it all into a rockabilly, you know, Southern thing.
Speaker B:I got encouragement for that and I was like, aha, here's a Southern new generation of people that are putting something together.
Speaker B:And this is where I'm heading, you know, and this is my mindset.
Speaker B:So I really identified with that in Chapel Hill and then the Athens scene and the people kind of looking back and doing cool stuff and knew what they were doing.
Speaker B:So I think that attracted me to that area and that really got me started with the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Speaker A:You mentioned briefly about record stores in the role that they played, especially at that time in music discovery.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Was there a bootleg that really got you or just something that was new to you that was like your Aha.
Speaker B:Album, You know, I would have to say it would be REM like when I was in high school, I saw them on David Letterman.
Speaker B:When Reckoning came out, I was supposed to be like banned from watching TV because I had made some bad grades.
Speaker B:Would sneak in the.
Speaker B:Living in the basement at night and watch the bands on David Letterman.
Speaker B:And one night, just out of the blue, here's R.E.M.
Speaker B:they're all scroungey looking.
Speaker B:They got clothes from the thrift shop and stuff.
Speaker B:And that's kind of how me and my boys like to dress, you know.
Speaker B:And we would get stuff out of our grandparents closets and thought it looked cool just to be different, you know, And.
Speaker B:And I was like, wow.
Speaker B:And they didn't.
Speaker B:They had no social skills on tv.
Speaker B:They looked uncomfortable.
Speaker B:I thought it was the greatest thing.
Speaker B:And then a few months later I find out they're playing this little broken down theater up in Oxford or over in Oxford.
Speaker B:And my buddy and I found out about it, got tickets and came and watched them.
Speaker B:And I just was blown away by this.
Speaker B:I think I was in about the 11th grade.
Speaker B:I was really impressed by how.
Speaker B:Just kind of scroungy but beautiful they were.
Speaker B:They looked horrible.
Speaker B:They had bad amps and they had no lighting in this whole thing.
Speaker B:There was maybe 20 people there.
Speaker B:And this was the Reckoning tour.
Speaker B:Just blew me away.
Speaker B:And then I started realizing they're from Georgia, you know, and started looking up into the east coast and the bands that were coming out of there.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I mean, really, in a lot of ways you had to move to get into that culture.
Speaker B:I did.
Speaker B:There was no, you know, Mississippi is caught up a lot in the past 20 years.
Speaker B:We're talking a minute ago, but at the time it was tough to be an original person here, especially wanting to be a musician and perform in public.
Speaker B:There just was no outlet for that.
Speaker A:And it's funny because on the one hand in the deep south we have such a history of music, but it's not necessarily public performance outside of the church realm.
Speaker B:Yeah, out of the church, in the juke joints of the 80s especially.
Speaker B:I think it was just a bad time, you know, music had just kind of lost its way.
Speaker B:You could still see Charlie Feathers in an old dive bar in Memphis in the 80s if you knew about Charlie Feathers, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker B:And there were still things to be seen, but it was really, really underground.
Speaker B:You could go to a fife and drum picnic in the hill country, you know.
Speaker B:But I didn't know about that.
Speaker B:No one did except the neighbors.
Speaker B:So it was Even more weird and hidden at that time.
Speaker B:It wasn't until the 90s, some of the Mississippi things, like the Fat Possum artists, started being brought into the light of day.
Speaker B:Junior Kimbrough.
Speaker B:And I was like, wow.
Speaker B:You know, there was an old joint up on the farm where I used to hear this music blaring out.
Speaker B:But you didn't think to go in there.
Speaker B:You know, you weren't allowed.
Speaker B:So it was there.
Speaker B:It was just way underground.
Speaker A:In the meantime, you physically, in some ways, had to move in order to pursue what was pulling you creatively.
Speaker A:Where did that take you in terms of pushing what you were thinking and pushing how you were creating and writing?
Speaker B:You're absolutely right.
Speaker B:I just.
Speaker B:I absolutely had to move at that time.
Speaker B:And I traveled extensively.
Speaker B:You know, I was figured out I needed to see the world in order to kind of decide where I was going to go.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:It was a conscious decision.
Speaker B:So I worked on river barges, you know, on the Mississippi River.
Speaker B:I was a deckhand.
Speaker B:And you'd work three to four weeks, and you get three to four weeks off.
Speaker B:I got this job.
Speaker B:I'd go out there and work for a month straight, and then I would travel just by myself.
Speaker B:I went to the west coast of San Francisco, went to la, and went to the East coast, all through the Deep south, of course.
Speaker B:And I landed on Chapel Hill.
Speaker B:That was just a place.
Speaker B:It was Southern, it was quirky.
Speaker B:I still knew I needed to be in the south, you know, I just.
Speaker B:I couldn't jive like I wanted to elsewhere.
Speaker B:I needed a smaller place.
Speaker B:God, up there, man, that.
Speaker B:It was just a different world.
Speaker B:There were libraries, there were music stores, there were music venues where all they had was original music.
Speaker B:You didn't have a cover band in Chapel hill.
Speaker B:That's the 180 degrees opposite from where I was from at that time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So there was no such thing as a cover band.
Speaker B:It was beautiful.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And all the libraries, the bookstores, the access to the folklore collection up there, you know, which is incredible.
Speaker B:There was more than I could soak in.
Speaker B:And so I just.
Speaker B:I said, hey, I'm moving here and I'm going to educate myself.
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:You know, I pulled my truck up into a little abandoned road and said, this is where I'm staying.
Speaker B:Called the Barges and said, I'm not coming back.
Speaker B:And I just launched into it.
Speaker B:And I stayed in the bookstores and just led me.
Speaker B:I just was looking at everything.
Speaker B:And the libraries had their policies up there were great.
Speaker B:You get a library card without any Kind of ID to all the libraries on campus.
Speaker B:So it was just fantastic.
Speaker B:You know, I read about theater, art, books, folklore, history, and then all the.
Speaker B:In the meantime, starting bands, and it just.
Speaker B:It was a great place to be at that time.
Speaker B:Hey, everybody.
Speaker B:Listening to Jimbo Mathis on country fried rock, look me up on JimboMathis.com, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker A:How did studying about all the history of the arts, both art and theater and folklore, what did that bring to you?
Speaker B:Well, it just made a big palette for me to decide, you know, to draw on.
Speaker B:I mean, music is theater too, you know, if you think of it in that way.
Speaker B:So gave me a bigger array of knowledge, you know, when it came to presenting my music and into starting bands, fitting in.
Speaker B:When I saw space for me, I had information I could draw on, you know, like, especially with the squirrel nut zippers, I mean, all that study and all that research and all that, it's like play to me.
Speaker B:I was like a kid in the candy shop.
Speaker B:So all I had to do was get a little job washing dishes.
Speaker B:I could sit back there and read all day.
Speaker B:And so it was great.
Speaker B:I just paid for my education by washing dishes and sitting around in coffee shops reading books and hanging out in the library.
Speaker B:You know, with the Squirrel Nut zippers, it all came together.
Speaker B:All the theater, all the music, the visual components of it, the all the concepts that we used in that, that was the ultimate Chapel Hill, you know, component of what I did was the squirrel nut zippers.
Speaker A:You all had a very, very creative time together.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:What continued to move you forward creatively after that time together?
Speaker B:I started getting more and more of a pull to come back to Mississippi.
Speaker B:I just started needing to be back here.
Speaker B:Best way I can say it, there were so many great things that happened in Chapel Hill and in North Carolina.
Speaker B:Like I said, every road I pursued in my creativity up there ended up leading back here.
Speaker B:I missed it.
Speaker A:A distinct theme has arisen throughout this show of southerners in particular who have had to leave home to really end up then appreciating home.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:I can't say that so much for the people from other places, but the southerners in particular, that stood out as a life force and a creative force ultimately for them.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Isn't that great?
Speaker A:Yeah, it is.
Speaker A:It's kind of cool.
Speaker A:It's kind of cool.
Speaker A:You became one of the most well read, self educated, and then you took that back to Mississippi.
Speaker A:How did that fly?
Speaker B:Well, you know, I also grew up hunting and fishing like everybody else.
Speaker B:And, you know, I Like living in the country.
Speaker B:And I don't try to really wear it on my sleeve, but I use it in my own writings a lot, in my own way of thinking about things.
Speaker B:You know, it might not come up in conversation.
Speaker B:I'm not going to sit around and pontificate about, you know, Antonin Artaud or something, even though I know about the theater of the absurd.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:I just go catfishing, hang out in Taylor, where I live, and, you know, do carpentry or just kick it.
Speaker B:I have no trouble just kind of fitting in or could say a lot of this stuff I learned I don't need.
Speaker B:I didn't need to learn, but I satisfied my own curiosity.
Speaker B:And I really didn't want to be somebody who.
Speaker B:I wanted to be somebody who knew what they were talking about, even if I didn't have to say it.
Speaker B:I really, really wanted to be genuine.
Speaker B:I wanted to be authentic.
Speaker B:I wanted to be the real thing and whatever I had to do to do that.
Speaker B:I loved the process of learning and seeing how art has shaped over the years and made America what it is.
Speaker B:So I feel very comfortable where I'm at.
Speaker B:Yes, ma'.
Speaker B:Am.
Speaker A:It sounds to me like there's some of the older gear involved.
Speaker B:No, you're absolutely.
Speaker A:Is that something that you're into?
Speaker B:You know, it's something.
Speaker B:I'm not a real tech person.
Speaker B:I was lucky enough through the Squirrel Nut zippers to have people drawn to our music that were like antique microphone and antique equipment collectors.
Speaker B:And so I found out right away that all the old music that I liked and enjoyed was recorded on a certain type of mic and with a certain technique.
Speaker A:I like those ribbon mics.
Speaker A:That's what got me into it.
Speaker B:That's what I use, the ribbon mics.
Speaker B:And so I was lucky enough to.
Speaker B:As being young and being in studios a lot, you just kind of seeing that, seeing what's going on in there.
Speaker B:And I just quickly came to the conclusion that I liked the old school.
Speaker B:And that's all I ever really needed to use.
Speaker B:I was fortunate enough to get a couple of ribbons, RCA ribbons and some German tube preamps back in the 90s.
Speaker B:And I've just kept them and really haven't bought anything else.
Speaker B:I just used them.
Speaker B:But see, it puts the focus on the instruments, puts the focus on the band or the.
Speaker B:Or the performer to do it properly.
Speaker B:You don't fix it.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I believe that the whole technology thing is driven by, you know, the studios and by the technology companies to make new products to sell to people and then the real techie people snatch them up and then they go out of date and then, you know, they mess the music up.
Speaker B:So they say, oh, we'll fix it later.
Speaker B:Well, not the way I record it.
Speaker B:You know, it's on there and you're leaving it for posterity at some point.
Speaker A:The need to fix it, fix it, fix it pulls out the human element from it.
Speaker B:It destroys it.
Speaker B:Hey buckaroos.
Speaker B:You're listening to Jimbo Mathis on country fried rock.
Speaker B:In the mind in the psychology of recording.
Speaker B:You know, it's an odd thing to do really.
Speaker B:Recording is frightening.
Speaker B:It's unusual for humans to do this, but to know that you can go fix it will mess your mind up.
Speaker B:So you shouldn't think that as you're doing it.
Speaker B:This is it, I'm putting it on the line right now.
Speaker B:So, you know, Sam Phillips wasn't going to tell Elvis, oh, don't worry about that, we'll fix your vocal later.
Speaker B:He was like, hey, that's it.
Speaker B:So that's kind of my philosophy.
Speaker B:But I'm really not a technology person at all.
Speaker A:Oh boy.
Speaker B:Yes, oh boy.
Speaker A:And it's funny because, you know, here you are doing it your way, as they used to say.
Speaker A:In some ways we're all forced to be technology people whether we want to be or not.
Speaker B:I'm not anti technology and in a lot of regards I think the social media stuff is great.
Speaker B:You can communicate easier.
Speaker B:You know, you can download lyrics, music at any time now.
Speaker B:You know, I would have to go on week long pursuits of some album or band to even locate something, a physical copy of something.
Speaker B:In the 80s, well now you can just punch, I punch a button on my cell phone.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:In the recording, not so much.
Speaker A:Well, so once you headed back to Mississippi then not physically or literally, where did you go but creatively, where did you go?
Speaker B:Well, I just immersed myself into the juke joint clubs, you know, just I got a little scrappy blues trio together and started learning how to just entertain the troops, you know, on the basic level, just on the DNA type level.
Speaker B:Black audiences, white audiences, mixed audiences.
Speaker B:A lot of times in the deep south the juke joints are the most integrated places out there.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:And the least integrated is church.
Speaker B:Yep, there you go, there you go.
Speaker B:And so, you know, there's the whole devil and God dichotomy working there.
Speaker B:But the juke joints are form of church and there's a lot of them.
Speaker B:Further, you can stray from the deep South.
Speaker B:The last little clubs there are the less Little dives.
Speaker B:You can just say, hey, I got this old gas station.
Speaker B:Let's sell cold beer and cook some barbecue and have a band up in there.
Speaker B:You know, it's just more hassle the further you get away from the Deep south with all that.
Speaker B:So I just got a little blues trio together.
Speaker B:This was on the heels of my work with Buddy Guy.
Speaker B:I felt sort of emboldened.
Speaker B:I felt more that I had more experience with the blues because I was scared to mess with the blues for lunch.
Speaker B:I privately practiced it.
Speaker B:I privately learned the way to play it, but I didn't feel like it was my place to do that.
Speaker B:And even though part of me said, wow, it'd be great to just get a band and play Dust My Broom, you know, it'd just be fun or play whatever.
Speaker B:But I didn't do it.
Speaker B:I resisted that urge.
Speaker B:After the Buddy Guy stuff, I felt like I had something to offer.
Speaker B:I'd been through, you know, three years with him on.
Speaker B:In the studio and on the road, and I said, I'm jumping into it, you know.
Speaker A:How did you end up working with Buddy Guy?
Speaker B:Well, again, it was a Mississippi connection.
Speaker B:I was up in Carolina.
Speaker B:He had been scheduled to make this record called Sweet Tea, right, Which is a producer named Dennis Herring and his, who is a Mississippi native.
Speaker B:Dennis had opened a studio in Oxford, and he had picked me to be the band leader and the guitarist for Buddy's project, Sweet Tea.
Speaker B:And he had picked me out just from referrals of other studios, other producers that had worked with me.
Speaker A:Ah, so y' all didn't know each other?
Speaker B:We did not know each other.
Speaker B:So just come to just.
Speaker B:All of these producers that recommended me had produced Squirrel Nut Zippers Records, but knew privately my interests, my ability, you know, just from me hearing me sit around in practice or hearing me at a little jam session or something, right.
Speaker B:You know, when we're just goofing off.
Speaker B:So several people pointed to me and said, jimbo is your man for the this blues project.
Speaker B:And that's what ended up happening.
Speaker B:So, you know, I just really hunkered down after I moved back here.
Speaker B:Stayed busy, stayed working, studying the clubs, learning how to handle the juke joints and having fun.
Speaker B:It was just a great time.
Speaker B:And that just kept me focused on the blues, Kept me focusing on the south, the culture that's going on around me.
Speaker B:And then also kept me closer to people like Jim Dickinson, Luther Dickinson, Alvin Hart, and all these artists that I was able to produce through my little janky studios, you know, just new People coming in every week, just local cats, people from Alabama, people from Georgia, Mississippi coming in and just surprising me with their.
Speaker B:With what they're doing.
Speaker B:And so I was able to care about their music too.
Speaker B:You know, I was able to put my hands on it and have it go through me.
Speaker B:And so it was just.
Speaker B:I was.
Speaker B:Just stayed constantly busy, you know, with the music creatively.
Speaker A:As someone who also.
Speaker A:You spent a lifetime writing your own stuff, how does working with someone else's music spark that for you?
Speaker B:Oh, it's great.
Speaker B:I mean, you get their perspective because I get.
Speaker B:A lot of people are drawn to me because I am original.
Speaker B:They could go anywhere else and get something else.
Speaker B:So they come to me because they are doing original stuff.
Speaker B:They are trying something.
Speaker B:So I get to hear their perspective.
Speaker B:You know, I get to see their process while I'm telling them tapes rolling.
Speaker B:It's basically what I do.
Speaker B:But I encourage them.
Speaker B:I get involved, I help them arrange their stuff so I get my hands dirty in their music and that's what they want from me.
Speaker B: bands, you know, between like: Speaker B:And so I absorb little tricks and I absorb little.
Speaker A:All kinds of stuff from the years of doing that.
Speaker A:What really came in that just made you go, yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, God, so many things.
Speaker B:I mean, just here recently, out of Charleston, South Carolina, Bottles and cans blew my mind.
Speaker B:Great, great, great lyrics.
Speaker B:Impassioned band love bottles and cans.
Speaker B:Hello, it's Jimbo Mathis.
Speaker B:Frankly, one that blew me away the most was Elvis Costello in the.
Speaker B:In the Imposters.
Speaker B:His band.
Speaker B:So professional, so tight.
Speaker B:One take.
Speaker B:They love the.
Speaker B:You know, you would think after all the years and all the highbrow things that he's been involved with, that he would come in and be stuck up and be.
Speaker B:He wanted the one old mic, he wanted the band to do it in one take, and they blew me away.
Speaker B:Great band, wonderful.
Speaker B:Just the most professional, coolest people.
Speaker B:The list goes on and on.
Speaker B:I mean, bottles and Cans, I think just came out.
Speaker B:So that's probably the most recent.
Speaker B:It's pretty fantastic.
Speaker B:You know when somebody just comes in out of the blue and it's like, okay, here we go.
Speaker B:I'm setting up the mics, and then they launch into the first number and you're just like, wow, this is ecstatic.
Speaker B:Another great, Robin Wojwitka.
Speaker B:He's from up in Canada.
Speaker B:He had this beautiful song called Rock Dust about his coal mining culture up there where he lives in Canada.
Speaker B:Fantastic.
Speaker B:Gives me chills to listen to it, you know.
Speaker B:Just great song.
Speaker B:Rock Dust by Robin Woywitka.
Speaker B:It goes on and on.
Speaker B:It's too much to even name.
Speaker A:Meanwhile though, it's not like you've stopped recording yourself either, Correct?
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker A:I think I have three records in the last three years.
Speaker A:Maybe.
Speaker B:Probably so.
Speaker B:Probably so.
Speaker B:Something like that.
Speaker B:Last year that was Tri State Coalition, Confederate Buddha.
Speaker B:That was my most recent project.
Speaker A:What's the transition from the Tri State Coalition 1 to now?
Speaker B:Wasn't still the same group, you know, I'm.
Speaker B:I've been working with these same guys here for coming up on eight and years, some of them.
Speaker B:I've been with this same band here coming up on about eight years now.
Speaker B:Justin Showa, Matt Pierce from Arkansas.
Speaker B:Those two have been with me for a while.
Speaker B:So the transition between the Buddha.
Speaker B:The new record is called Blue Light.
Speaker B:That's a collector's.
Speaker B:It's a 10 inch EP.
Speaker A:Ooh.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's vinyl only, but it's.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a.
Speaker B:It's a blue vinyl.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker B:Very cool.
Speaker B:Yeah, and six original songs on there.
Speaker B:And it's just a continuation, you know.
Speaker B:It's a mixture of stu soul, honky tonk blues, southern rock and just.
Speaker B:I just keep mixing it up in different ways, you know.
Speaker B:This one's got some nice pedal steel on it, some super funky stuff.
Speaker B:And so it's just a continuation, you know, of what I've been doing some pretty, I think some interesting songs on.
Speaker A:This just because I happened to like the tactile aspect of music.
Speaker A:What made you decide to go vinyl?
Speaker B:Well, I was approached by Bruce, you know, and it's actually on their.
Speaker B:Their vinyl component is called Big Legal Mess.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker B:I love the name.
Speaker B:Big Legal Mess is my new label and I love it.
Speaker B:Yeah, they approached me.
Speaker B:They're based here in Oxford, you know, where I live.
Speaker B:They approached me about doing a record.
Speaker B:I went in their studio and actually it was nice to just turn it over to somebody else that's produced at their place.
Speaker B:I use the same techniques.
Speaker B:Ribbon Mike, just the engineers from Muscles worked at Muscle Shoals, so they do it the real Southern way, you know.
Speaker B:So it's got a cool original collage on the front and it's translucent blue vinyl.
Speaker B:It's gonna be pretty nice.
Speaker A:So were you involved in the visual design process of this?
Speaker B:Yes, ma'.
Speaker B:Am.
Speaker B:I do my own covers, you know, I do my own Album covers with art, collage and different found stuff that I use.
Speaker B:So, yeah, this one has a nice cover.
Speaker B:It's got a 66 Dodge Charger and floating over a the Mojave Desert.
Speaker B:Pretty nice.
Speaker A:I am into found object art and collage.
Speaker A:I mean, I'm not sure that that's a technical term, but that's what I call it.
Speaker B:I don't know what you call it, but my grandma used to call it cutting out paper dolls, you know, I mean, you cut out stuff at the Sears catalog.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:Well, this isn't just like a hobby for you?
Speaker B:No, well, no, ma', am, not really.
Speaker B:You know, I mean, I studied visual art, you know, on my own, and it's something I've always done, drawing and, you know, sketching things.
Speaker B:And it's not my main focus, but I usually take the time to do my album covers.
Speaker B:If you look on my website on JimboMathis.com, there's a page that's got some original art on there that you can check out.
Speaker B:You know, your listeners can check out.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Just always combined and intertwined in my mind.
Speaker B:I know it sounds weird, but they're never separate to me.
Speaker B:I think the most visual thing I've ever put together was Squirrel Nut zippers.
Speaker B:I mean, that combined really all the.
Speaker B:From painting backdrops, we had the full thing, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah, it'll probably never be that visual again.
Speaker B:But you know, I would love to do like illustrated books.
Speaker B:I would love to do more drawing and more painting and stuff, but it just gets to be a matter of time.
Speaker B:I always take the time to do my covers, you know.
Speaker B:So you can look on Confederate Buddha and see one of my collages on that.
Speaker B:Yes, ma'.
Speaker B:Am.
Speaker B:Yeah, it needs to make sense, you know.
Speaker B:And that's when I tell my clients at the studio, like, don't do a cheesy cover.
Speaker B:Let me do it before, you know, you just give it to some half designer and have it look like you've taken all this time, make a good cover.
Speaker B:And a lot of times they do.
Speaker B:Listen to me.
Speaker A:That's the glass half full way of staying Matt.
Speaker B:As far as the big legal mess record.
Speaker B:It's going to be coming out in July and then this fall, you know, I've got a full length coming out that we took the time to do a Kickstarter campaign for.
Speaker B:We raised about 16,000 bucks to pay for this incredible producer.
Speaker B:So I took my hands off this last one.
Speaker B:It's going to be called White Buffalo.
Speaker B:And it's all original stuff.
Speaker B:He has done some great things with, like, Steve Earl and, of course, his own groups that he's had.
Speaker B:He's about 10 years older than me and just very, very enthusiastic about my music.
Speaker B:Kind of came forward and really wanted to get his hands on it.
Speaker B:Made me excited.
Speaker B:It's called White Buffalo, and it'll be out this fall.
Speaker A:Gotcha.
Speaker A:Was it tied in with the birth of this white buffalo?
Speaker B:Well, it predates that.
Speaker B:I mean, the song was recorded over a month ago.
Speaker B:It was written.
Speaker B:I wrote it because we had a white buffalo die here in Mississippi.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker B:Yes, we did.
Speaker B:In Tupelo.
Speaker B:We had one die last fall.
Speaker B:And, you know, they're one in millions.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Now, this one over here was named Dakota, and that's a crossing of the name Tupelo, which is where it lived, and Lakota, where the white buffaloes are held especially sacred.
Speaker B:This thing that happened last week is Just blew my mind.
Speaker B:You're talking about the incident in Texas.
Speaker A:The birth of the one in Texas that has then been murdered.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker A:It's horrible.
Speaker B:Yes, it's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker B:I can't believe someone could be so ignorant.
Speaker A:No, I can't either.
Speaker B:Soulless.
Speaker B:So the whole.
Speaker B:The white buffalo thing was really based off of Dakota.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:He was gored or just wounded in a fight over on the ranch where he lived.
Speaker B:And his wounds, they couldn't get him to get well, and he died.
Speaker B:And to me, that was honoring in the song.
Speaker B:Well, the whole thing that happened last week is just coincidence, and I couldn't.
Speaker B:I'm not sure what to think about it, but it's.
Speaker B:It's heartbreaking.
Speaker B:But the song, you know, itself.
Speaker B:White Buffalo, is probably my greatest song I've done.
Speaker B:You know, it's very heavy.
Speaker A:The white buffalo is not an albino buffalo.
Speaker A:It is a very rare genetic occurrence.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker B:Being the buffalo sacred to Native Americans, the white ones are especially.
Speaker B:It was prophesied that this calf would be born.
Speaker B:His great grandson started this buffalo ranch.
Speaker B:And one of the first animals born was a white buffalo.
Speaker B:And his great, great grandfather had told him, a white buffalo will come, and this is what it will mean.
Speaker B:And so the odds of all that just went up even more into the billions.
Speaker B:And then to have this thing, I contributed money to the reward, you know, to find this person.
Speaker B:And it's up to, like, $45,000 reward.
Speaker B:And this just happened.
Speaker B:But the song is more just in honor of the idea that animals can be important things on earth.
Speaker B:These symbols of hope for people to gather around and they can fulfill prophecies and stuff.
Speaker B:Well, how this pans out, we'll have to see.
Speaker B:Yeah, but it's.
Speaker B:It's devastating, I'm sure to.
Speaker B:It's devastating to me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:By the time that that record is out, I think that that will be a real powerful vehicle.
Speaker B:I hope so.
Speaker B:I hope that it has some use.
Speaker B:I mean, that's.
Speaker B:That's my best goal as artists, is to be useful somehow on earth, you know, and of course, just making people happy, making people have fun, cut loose.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's the number one job as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:I'm not this kind of self introspective mopey music, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker B:There's a place for that as well.
Speaker B:I'm not putting that down.
Speaker B:But my kind of music is more about sort of release, having fun, but also to be useful would be the greatest honor for one of my songs, you know.
Speaker A:I appreciate it.
Speaker A:Take it easy.
Speaker B:Yes, ma'.
Speaker B:Am.
Speaker A:Bye bye.
Speaker A:Country Fried Rock Find the full playlist from this episode on countryfriedrock.org check us out on itunes.
Speaker A:No music, just talk.
Speaker A:Our theme music is from the Full Tones.
Speaker A:Our Country Fried Rock stinger is from Steve Soto in the Twisted Hearts.
Speaker A:Country fried rock.
Speaker A: Copyright: Speaker A:All rights reserved.
