NEW ALBUM! Live at the White Water Tavern, Vol. 1

By Eddie Huffman

After writing and recording dozens of songs across more than 20 albums, Jimbo Mathus was in no hurry to repeat the process. “There’s so many freakin’ songs that I just said, ‘Do I
really need to do another record with new stuff? Why not just have fun with this?’”

That’s why he bypassed the studio to cut a live album at a beloved dive bar in Little Rock, a venue he has played so often they have a huge portrait of him on the wall. Live at White
Water Tavern, Vol. 1 is the result, a seven-song collection of gloriously ragged songs in a musical tradition that stretches from Doug Sahm and Tony Joe White to the Waco Brothers and Southern Culture on the Skids.

“There was really no other plan, just press Record and wind ’er up,” Mathus says. “It’s a pretty simple record, no big deal. Just something to pop on, party down, turn it up loud. There’s not any big statement or anything, it’s just a kick-ass Southern band.”

Southern music is in his DNA. Mathus’s wanderings eventually led him back to his home state of Mississippi, where he started singing and playing with family members as a young boy. He performed in a string of groups leading to his big breakthrough in the 1990s with Squirrel Nut Zippers, a band he still tours with decades later. The Black Keys have enlisted Mathus to record with them and play guitar on their next tour.

He released the first album under his own name in 1997. Live at White Water Tavern, Vol. 1 is his first for Music Maker Foundation, and it includes fan favorites dating back to 2005, such as “Skateland Baby” from Knockdown South and “Shady Dealing” from Confederate Buddha. The dozens of songs he has written don’t just appear on his own records – Mathus also writes songs for other artists, including ones he produces for Music Maker at the foundation’s studio in Fountain, N.C., population 385.

The Creatures of the Southern Wild, his road-seasoned band, backs Mathus on the new album while also serving as house musicians for Music Maker sessions. “It’s a mixture of guys and gals that I’ve accumulated over the years,” he says. “We do everything from R&B to blues, soul, gospel, country, and hillbilly. You name it, we can do it all.”

His relationship with Music Maker dates back a decade, a period in which Mathus has worked on records by a number of artists, including Dom Flemons, Robert Finley, and Ironing Board Sam. He has additional projects with Music Maker artists scheduled through the rest of the year and into 2026.

His second album for the foundation is already in the can: Live at White Water Tavern, Vol. 2. Mathus and company recorded enough material for two records, with the second volume a more sacred, acoustic, Sunday morning counterpart to the hard-rocking Saturday night songs of Vol. 1. Look for Vol. 2 next year.

White Water Tavern provided the ideal atmosphere for both sides of his musical personality. “It’s just one of those funky great clubs,” Mathus says. “It’s a kind of spiritual home
for me.”