Outside of Mississippi, Jimbo Mathus may be best known as a founding member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the North Carolina-based outfit. Unfairly lumped in with the superficial swing revival of that decade, the Zippers were actually sophisticated stylists, blending hot jazz, ragtime, string-band, and any number of other styles. But over the past decade, via a variety of projects — including the Knockdown Society, the South Memphis String Band (with Luther Dickinson and Alvin Youngblood Hart), and his current band, the Tri-State Coalition — Mathus has devoted himself to the roots music of his home state, whether it’s blues, country, folk, jazz, or anything in between. Mathus’ most recent album, 2011’s Confederate Buddha, was directly inspired by the Alan Lomax Mississippi field recordings in the 1950s. It’s a collection of postmillennial country blues and Southern honky-tonk so deliriously slack it sounds like it was recorded in one take with no rehearsals. Jimbo Mathus & the Tri-State Coalition play the Levitt Shell on Saturday, May 26th. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Free.
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