The term “supergroup” probably gets thrown around too much, but in terms of regional roots music, the recently formed South Memphis String Band certainly applies: The band — which is currently on its first tour and makes its local debut this tonight at Otherlands Coffee Bar — unites three A-list Mid-South blues/roots artists: Alvin Youngblood Hart, North Mississippi Allstar guitarist Luther Dickinson, and former Squirrel Nut Zipper Jimbo Mathus.
The band started its debut tour in Dallas last month, making its way across Texas and the Southeast before heading north en route to New York City. I caught up with Hart in D.C., where the trio was getting ready for an appearance on XM Radio.
“Luther’s always up to something, brainstorming something,” Hart says when asked about how the band formed. “Me and Luther and Jimbo and Charlie Musselwhite had been recording some stuff down at [Jim Dickinson’s] Zebra Ranch [studio]. I don’t know what we had planned to do with it, but this came out of that basically.”
