LITTLE ROCK — “You can’t get much more American than baseball and rock ’n’ roll.”
So says the Confederate Buddha himself, Jimbo Mathus, who brings the latter part of that All-American equation Saturday to North Little Rock’s Dickey-Stephens Park. Mathus and his Tri-State Coalition band will crank up their own brand of Southern-drenched rock, country and blues following the Travelers’ 7:10 p.m. Texas League matchup with the San Antonio Missions.
“I just hope the Travelers win so the fans will be happy,” Mathus says with a laugh during an interview from his Taylor, Miss., home.
Mathus is on the road promoting his most recent longplayer, Confederate Buddha, a pleasing mix of roots rock that reeks of honky-tonks, Delta dirt roads, rusty cars and low-down characters with hearts of gold.
“It’s a bit of a departure for me,” Mathus, 44, says of the album. “It’s a bit more versatile and well-rounded. I was able to get more on the country side of things, with more storytelling in the songs.”
It’s true. From the Bandlike opener “Jimmy the Kid” to the Hank Williams-inspired weeper “Town With No Shame” and the simple, Tex-Mex-tinged “Aces & Eights,” Confederate Buddha is an easy, smile-tweaking trip through what Mathus calls his “Southern conglomerate of musics.”
The man knows of what he speaks. He was 6 when he started playing bluegrass mandolin and singing along as his daddy played five-string banjo in Corinth, Miss.
In the early ’90s he and then-wife Katharine Whalen formed the Squirrel Nut Zippers and got caught up in the swing revival, though their music was more complex and textured than many of the young big-band wannabes of that movement. The Zippers ended up selling more than a million albums and scored a gold single with “Hell.”
The group took a bit of a hiatus through the early part of this century — Mathus and Whalen divorced and he’s now married to wife Jennifer — but they’ve recently started touring again.
Mathus’ own solo career has been a march through the fertile Southern triumvirate of rock, blues and country. Picking away at his guitar, with his gold tooth sparkling in the lights, he has been a familiar sight in most Arkansas clubs and festivals friendly to his earthy brand of music.
Arkansas-born producer Jim Dickinson once called Mathus the “singing voice of Huck Finn,” and it was through his Dickinson connection that he hooked up with Memphis International Records, Confederate Buddha’s label.
And the Tri-State Coalition also has a pair of Arkie connections. Guitarist Matt Pierce and drummer Alex Holeman are both from Jonesboro. Rounding out the Coalition are Justin Showah on bass and vocals and Eric Carlton on piano and organ.
Dickinson’s sons, North Mississippi All-Stars Luther and Cody Dickinson, also played on the album.
There’s word that Mathus will also sing the National Anthem at Saturday’s game. Though it might not seem exactly in his wheelhouse, he’s no stranger to the song, or to sporting venues.
“I sang the National Anthem at a Golden State Warriors game,” he says, referring to the NBA team. “I’ll tell you. I was a little nervous. It’s a hard song to sing, but it’s an important song and I was honored to do it.”
And as for rocking out in a ballpark? Mathus laughs. “Man, I’ve gigged just about everywhere you can think of. It’s gonna be a good time.”
Jimbo Mathus &
The Tri-State
Coalition
When: Saturday after the 7:10 p.m. Arkansas Travelers game
Where: Dickey-Stephens Park’s Hookslide Corner, North Little Rock
Admission: $6-$12
(501) 664-7559
www.travs.com
Weekend, Pages 34 on 08/11/2011