Advertisement
Photo provided by Denise Kovalevich
__________________________________________________________________________________
As the Squirrel Nut Zippers prepare to hit the road for their annual “Christmas Caravan Tour” and celebrate the 30th anniversary of their breakout album Hot with their “In the Afterlife” West Coast trek, founding member Jimbo Mathus shows no sign of slowing down. Beyond the enduring success of the Platinum-selling Zippers, Mathus has built an impressive solo career—one that explores the deeper veins of Southern music through blues, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. His latest work, Live at White Water Tavern, Vol. 1 (Music Maker Foundation, September 2025), is a testament to his legacy. After releasing more than 16 albums, Live at White Water Tavern, Vol. 1 goes back to Mathus’ roots with a seven-song collection of gloriously ragged songs recorded live at a beloved dive bar in Little Rock, AK, a venue he has played so often they have a huge portrait of him on the wall.
Yet, whether leading his own band or trading riffs with collaborators like Andrew Bird, Mathus’ guitar work remains the heartbeat of his sound: a singular blend of Delta blues grit, jazz-inflected swing, and roots-rock swagger. He has carved out a style that’s both steeped in tradition and defiantly his own. Onstage, his guitar is more than an instrument—it’s an extension of his storytelling, channeling the spirit of the South through every note and bend.
ABOUT JIMBO MATHUS
Jimbo Mathus is an American guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter born in Mississippi. Raised in a musical family, he absorbed Southern folk, blues, and country traditions from an early age. By childhood he was already playing mandolin, and by his teens he had added guitar, piano, and harmony singing, setting the foundation for a life built around American roots music.
His early adulthood was marked by experimentation. In high school he performed in punk and noise-rock groups, reflecting his broad curiosity and refusal to be confined to a single genre. After moving to North Carolina in the early 1990s, he continued both academic study and musical exploration, eventually changing the spelling of his last name to “Mathus.” During this period he blended literary interests with deepening musical direction.
Mathus rose to national attention in 1993 when he co-founded the band Squirrel Nut Zippers. Their lively mix of swing, early jazz, Delta blues, and eclectic Americana placed them at the center of the 1990s swing revival. The group’s success — including the hit single “Hell” and several charting albums — showcased Mathus’s gift for combining vintage styles with modern energy and distinctive songwriting.
After the band’s initial run, Mathus shifted focus to his solo career and Mississippi roots. He released numerous albums that ranged from blues and rockabilly to country-rock and Southern-gothic storytelling. His work with the Tri-State Coalition emphasized raw emotion and traditional Southern textures. He also became an in-demand collaborator and producer, contributing to recordings by major blues artists, including Buddy Guy, while running his own studio projects in Mississippi.
Across his career, Jimbo Mathus has become known for honoring American musical traditions while reimagining them with grit, spirit, and creativity. Whether performing with high-energy swing ensembles, deep blues bands, or stripped-down acoustic groups, he represents a living thread connecting contemporary music with the histories of the American South.
In this interview, Mathus reflects on his evolution as a guitarist, the vintage sounds that shaped his approach, and how he keeps the flame of Hotburning three decades later.
Guitar Thrills: Hello, Jimbo and welcome to Guitar Thrills Magazine. We are thrilled that you are joining us today!
Jimbo Mathus (JM): Thank you for having me, it’s great to be here.
Guitar Thrills: You grew up in Clarksdale, Mississippi — the birthplace of the blues. How did your surroundings shape your approach to the guitar?
Jim: I first became aware of the rich blues legacy of Clarksdale in my late teens, around 1988. The blues music scene was a hidden world there, mostly unknown to the white populace. There were a few writers and folklorists around such as Billy Ferris and Jim O’Niel.
I sought them out to help educate me into the juke joint world of the Mississippi Delta. Then I began exploring it myself. Another great discovery happened at this time in which I learned something monumental. My Uncle was a cotton farmer in Duncan Mississippi where I spent summers with their family. They had a housekeeper, an elderly black lady whom I had known from childhood named Rosetta Brown. It came to light that she was the daughter of Blues legend Charley Patton. This was an eye-opening event for me and I began doing my own research into her life and that of her notorious father, who had died in 1934. As I had always considered her family, it brought a very tangible and close feeling of kinship to a legacy of the Delta Blues that inspired me to study the music form in all its aspects. Over the ensuing decades I’ve had the opportunity to observe, tour with, and record with many Mississippi notables, most famously recording Buddy Guy’s masterpiece of hill country blues “Sweat Tea” and also his Grammy-winning “Blues Singer”, which was done in the older, acoustic format.
Guitar Thrills: Was there a particular moment or song that made you want to pick up the guitar in the first place?
Jim: My family all played in the hillbilly style of music, which shares many similarity withe the black blues idiom. I began performing with them at age 8 on mandolin and the first song I learned was an old number called “Redwing”. It wasn’t any one song but the feeling of camaraderie with the musicians that I was really drawn to.
Guitar Thrills: Your guitar style blends blues, ragtime, country, and rock with total ease. How do you approach combining those sounds without losing authenticity?
Jim: I’ve studied and performed American music in all its original forms, so I take a little bit from all styles. I’ve been lucky to have some great mentors, most notable in the jazz domain was Al Casey, guitarist with Fats Waller’s fine band of the 30s and 40s.
Guitar Thrills: What’s your philosophy on slide guitar — is it more about precision or personality?
Jim: I’m not the best slide player, only using it occasionally. But when I do, I use the Robert Nighthawk method of playing in standard and mixing slide with other fretted notes. In all my playing I’m more an emotional player than executing any type of precision. I’m pretty sloppy and I like it that way.
Guitar Thrills: Can you tell us about your favorite guitars and how you found them?
Jim: Hmm…it depends on the style I’m playing. I tend to like Gibsons, using a 1950s 125 for Zippers. I’ve got a Martin flat top that’s about 30 years old I got new. It’s broken in nicely.
Guitar Thrills: Let’s dive into what the Squirrel Nut Zippers has coming up this year. First you have your beloved “Christmas Caravan Tour.” Can you tell me a little about that and how that started?
Jim: We were forced to play a game of tit for tat with the record label many years ago in which the end result was we had to deliver a Holiday album. Instead of covering standards, we wrote most of the material and it’s really become a seasonal favorite for our audience. It just made sense to stage an annual concert where we perform that material.
Guitar Thrills: You also have a big anniversary coming up – the 30th anniversary of your breakthrough album Hot. What do you have planned for that?
Jim: We intend to perform the album in its entirety during our “In the Afterlife” Tour and have some additional staging/film/lighting components to round out the show.
Guitar Thrills: Finally, any final words or pearls of wisdom for our fine readers?
Jim: The main thing about longevity in the entertainment field, in my opinion, is being a fair, ego- free artist, one who leads from the front and takes initiative to continually create and challenge oneself to keep moving forward. Be kind to your band mates. And don’t practice by yourself too much. Always seek other players to surround oneself with, players who are better than you.
For more information about Jimbo Mathus, visit https://www.therealjimbomathus.com.
For more information about the Squirrel Nut Zippers and upcoming tour dates, visit https://www.snzippers.com/tourdates.
Follow Squirrel Nut Zippers:
https://www.facebook.com/SNZippers
https://www.instagram.com/snzippers
A RECAP OF WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
