JIMBO MATHUS
''BLUE HEALER''
APRIL 21 2015
41:05
1 Shoot Out The Lights 03:29
2 Mama Please 02:31
3 Blue Healer 03:04
4 Sometimes I Get Worried 04:01
5 Ready To Run 03:39
6 Thank You 03:28
7 Coyote 04:48
8 Bootheel Witch 03:46
9 Old Earl 03:12
10 Waiting On The Other Shoe To Fall 02:07
11 Save It For The Highway 03:11
12 Love And Affection 03:43
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
**** Of *****
One of the more remarkable things about Jimbo Mathus' 2014 album Dark Night of the Soul was that amid its careening, roughshod juxtaposition of roadhouse rock & roll and juke joint blues were songs that sought redemption amid the chaos. Blue Healer feels like an extension of that offering, with a twist. Recorded with a host of friends, in analog, with Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum house studio maven Bruce Watson at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, this set is a shambolic, loose-knit, and ambiguous concept record that offers myth and pathos jaggedly entwined with deeply personal songs about struggle and salvation. "Shoot Out the Lights" is a stomping piano-and-guitar, Memphis garage rave-up that lays out the protagonist's place in the world as a swaggering rock & roll gunslinger. It's a hell of a way to kick off an album and stands as one of its finest tracks. The title number is named for the album's Muse, a female who, in her mysterious countenance, offers the possibility for deliverance as well as inspiration. Combining blues and tango with a pulsing organ chord as its heartbeat, the snare skitter and loose wrangling guitars underscore Mathus' voice drenched in delirium and conviction. Doubt surfaces in the souled-out, ragged country gospel of "Sometimes I Worry," with a stirring group chorus that recalls Delaney & Bonnie and Leon Russell's Shelter People. Resilience comes out of the shadows in the rocking manifesto that is "Ready to Run." One can hear traces of early Willie Nile and Willy DeVille in its steely determination, buoyed by a backing chorus that would make Edwin Hawkins proud. The middle of the record rambles through Kanye West's "Thank You," a primarily acoustic Americana ballad, and "Coyote," which evokes a hallucinogenic dream with lonesome desert-country music. "Bootheel Witch" is a rocking return, as soul, R&B, and gospel come together with psychedelic overtones (Jim Dickinson's Dixie Fried anyone?). "Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop" and "Save It for the Highway" both crank. The former is a midtempo honky tonk rocker that portrays the protagonist's (temporary) backslide with a lyric reminder that no journey to transcendence is smooth; the widescreen backing vocals offer support and encouragement. With its pumping electric piano, the latter is a razor-sharp blues rocker, drenched in R&B and Jerry Lee Lewis swagger. An upright barroom piano and a blues-shuffling bass and drum frame closer "Love and Affection," even as the guitars play flat-out boogie. Jubilant, this is gospel music heard in the juke joint at the moment Saturday night bleeds into Sunday morning; it testifies that love itself is the only thing that redeems. Many artists use the roots music of Memphis and Mississippi, but few can pull it off with such empathic, natural authority and gritty immediacy. Blue Healer is all killer, no filler.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Heather Phares
Along with his work in the Squirrel Nut Zippers, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jim Mathus pursued projects outside of the group (often under slightly different names, including James Mathus, Jas Mathus, Jimbo "Hambone" Mathus, and Jimbo Mathus), appearing on collaborator Andrew Bird's albums Thrills and Bowl of Fire. In 1997, Mathus, Zippers bassist Stu Cole, producer Mike Napolitano, and pianist Greg Bell formed the Knockdown Society and released Play Songs for Rosetta, a collection of bluesman Charley Patton's songs that benefited his daughter Rosetta and her family. His music took another turn in late 2001 with the release of National Antiseptic, this time offering tribute to the electric juke joint swamp rock of the Deep South. That same year he appeared on Buddy Guy's classic Sweet Tea offering. Mathus followed up with the similarly bluesy and eclectic Stop and Let the Devil Ride in 2003, and two years later Knockdown South was issued.
Mathus decided to return to the acoustic roots of Mississippi blues and country with Old Scool Hot Wings, which came out in 2006. Also appearing in 2006, this time under the name Jimbo Mathus, was the album Jimmy the Kid, released by Artemis Records and re-released in 2014 on Hill Country. Mathus stuck with the Jimbo moniker for his 2011 full-length Confederate Buddha. Blue Light, a six-song solo vinyl EP, arrived in 2012, followed by the full-length White Buffalo in 2013. In February of 2014, Mathus and his Tri-State Coalition band issued the electric Dark Night of the Soul. He contributed to songwriter Ian Siegal's Picnic Sessions the same year. Mathus desired a completely analog sound for his next record. To that end, he recorded at Water Valley, Mississippi's Dial Back Sound, the home studio of Fat Possum label boss Bruce Watson. He emerged with the loosely knit concept offering Blue Healer in the spring of 2015.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
''BLUE HEALER''
APRIL 21 2015
41:05
1 Shoot Out The Lights 03:29
2 Mama Please 02:31
3 Blue Healer 03:04
4 Sometimes I Get Worried 04:01
5 Ready To Run 03:39
6 Thank You 03:28
7 Coyote 04:48
8 Bootheel Witch 03:46
9 Old Earl 03:12
10 Waiting On The Other Shoe To Fall 02:07
11 Save It For The Highway 03:11
12 Love And Affection 03:43
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
**** Of *****
One of the more remarkable things about Jimbo Mathus' 2014 album Dark Night of the Soul was that amid its careening, roughshod juxtaposition of roadhouse rock & roll and juke joint blues were songs that sought redemption amid the chaos. Blue Healer feels like an extension of that offering, with a twist. Recorded with a host of friends, in analog, with Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum house studio maven Bruce Watson at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, this set is a shambolic, loose-knit, and ambiguous concept record that offers myth and pathos jaggedly entwined with deeply personal songs about struggle and salvation. "Shoot Out the Lights" is a stomping piano-and-guitar, Memphis garage rave-up that lays out the protagonist's place in the world as a swaggering rock & roll gunslinger. It's a hell of a way to kick off an album and stands as one of its finest tracks. The title number is named for the album's Muse, a female who, in her mysterious countenance, offers the possibility for deliverance as well as inspiration. Combining blues and tango with a pulsing organ chord as its heartbeat, the snare skitter and loose wrangling guitars underscore Mathus' voice drenched in delirium and conviction. Doubt surfaces in the souled-out, ragged country gospel of "Sometimes I Worry," with a stirring group chorus that recalls Delaney & Bonnie and Leon Russell's Shelter People. Resilience comes out of the shadows in the rocking manifesto that is "Ready to Run." One can hear traces of early Willie Nile and Willy DeVille in its steely determination, buoyed by a backing chorus that would make Edwin Hawkins proud. The middle of the record rambles through Kanye West's "Thank You," a primarily acoustic Americana ballad, and "Coyote," which evokes a hallucinogenic dream with lonesome desert-country music. "Bootheel Witch" is a rocking return, as soul, R&B, and gospel come together with psychedelic overtones (Jim Dickinson's Dixie Fried anyone?). "Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop" and "Save It for the Highway" both crank. The former is a midtempo honky tonk rocker that portrays the protagonist's (temporary) backslide with a lyric reminder that no journey to transcendence is smooth; the widescreen backing vocals offer support and encouragement. With its pumping electric piano, the latter is a razor-sharp blues rocker, drenched in R&B and Jerry Lee Lewis swagger. An upright barroom piano and a blues-shuffling bass and drum frame closer "Love and Affection," even as the guitars play flat-out boogie. Jubilant, this is gospel music heard in the juke joint at the moment Saturday night bleeds into Sunday morning; it testifies that love itself is the only thing that redeems. Many artists use the roots music of Memphis and Mississippi, but few can pull it off with such empathic, natural authority and gritty immediacy. Blue Healer is all killer, no filler.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Heather Phares
Along with his work in the Squirrel Nut Zippers, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jim Mathus pursued projects outside of the group (often under slightly different names, including James Mathus, Jas Mathus, Jimbo "Hambone" Mathus, and Jimbo Mathus), appearing on collaborator Andrew Bird's albums Thrills and Bowl of Fire. In 1997, Mathus, Zippers bassist Stu Cole, producer Mike Napolitano, and pianist Greg Bell formed the Knockdown Society and released Play Songs for Rosetta, a collection of bluesman Charley Patton's songs that benefited his daughter Rosetta and her family. His music took another turn in late 2001 with the release of National Antiseptic, this time offering tribute to the electric juke joint swamp rock of the Deep South. That same year he appeared on Buddy Guy's classic Sweet Tea offering. Mathus followed up with the similarly bluesy and eclectic Stop and Let the Devil Ride in 2003, and two years later Knockdown South was issued.
Mathus decided to return to the acoustic roots of Mississippi blues and country with Old Scool Hot Wings, which came out in 2006. Also appearing in 2006, this time under the name Jimbo Mathus, was the album Jimmy the Kid, released by Artemis Records and re-released in 2014 on Hill Country. Mathus stuck with the Jimbo moniker for his 2011 full-length Confederate Buddha. Blue Light, a six-song solo vinyl EP, arrived in 2012, followed by the full-length White Buffalo in 2013. In February of 2014, Mathus and his Tri-State Coalition band issued the electric Dark Night of the Soul. He contributed to songwriter Ian Siegal's Picnic Sessions the same year. Mathus desired a completely analog sound for his next record. To that end, he recorded at Water Valley, Mississippi's Dial Back Sound, the home studio of Fat Possum label boss Bruce Watson. He emerged with the loosely knit concept offering Blue Healer in the spring of 2015.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
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