Bonus Material: Taking It to the Mountain (Trenton Ayers)

Music Video

Interview with Trenton Ayers

Behind the Scenes Photos

Credits

About Trenton Ayers (Artist Page)

Music Video: “Play On”

Interview with Trenton Ayers

Written by Cree McCree

Trenton Ayers has been hailed as part of the next generation of Hill Country blues artists, but that’s a bit of a misnomer. “As far as I’m concerned, I can just be labeled as me,” Ayers says via Zoom, when I reach him at his home in Holly Springs, MS. “Because there are players from our area who are much younger than I am. I’m in my early 40s.”

With his trademark silver-studded pigtail dangling down from his black head cap, he actually looks much younger, I note. “Thank you ma’am,” he replies with a laugh. “I try to keep myself up.”

Ayers cut his teeth as a musician as a young boy. “Between my mom and my father, my brothers and sisters and uncles and aunties, music was everywhere,” he recalls. “My brother, he’s like the prince of the family, and I used to go through all his DJ tapes in his room. Then I’d go see my uncles, who might be listening to Blood, Sweat and Tears, because my family’s very diverse. I get my fashion style from my uncle James, who was hip to Sly and the Family Stone.”

But despite his rich musical heritage, Ayers remained virtually unknown. That’s when Music Maker producer Jimbo Mathus stepped in to help give him a boost. “He grew up pretty hard in the Hill Country blues scene,” Malthus said via Zoom, speaking from Taylor, MS. “So I really wanted to give him a shot with a good organization. I brought him to Music Maker to help him create a great record that he could base a career on.”

That record is Taking it to the Mountain, scheduled to be released on the Music Maker label September 4. During a lively conversation, we discussed the evolution of the album; his close friendships with Hill Country elders like Jessie May Hemphill, Junior Kimbrough and Cedric Burnside; his long history as a touring musician; his stint working at a 17,000-acre elk ranch; and his battle with the bottle (spoiler alert: he won).

Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows below.

Cree McCree: In the early 1990s, Spin magazine sent me down from New York City to do a whole story about the Hill Country Blues. I got to meet Cedric Burnside’s father, RL Burnside, and Junior Kimbrough and the great Jessie Mae Hemphill. Did you know her?

Trenton Ayers: Yes, ma’am. Jessie Mae had her own authentic way of playing the blues too, she had a real specific style. When Junior had the club she used to come over and play in the club. And she threw a lot of great hill country picnics. But my roots go much farther back than that.

I had a grandfather on my mom’s side that used to play the fiddle or the violin, depending on what you want to call it, in the fields. And they used to come pick him up and take him all over the south and all through the north. So he used to be a touring musician as well. It’s in my blood.

CM: I listened to the new album several times and boy, you really scorched. The first cut on the album, “Blues So Bad,” really sets the tone: “It hurts my feet to walk/It hurts my tongue to talk.” What a great way of expressing it.

TA: When I heard the lyric. I was like, yeah, we can use that. I can put my own little pizazz on it, my little spin of delivery on it, and there you go.

Behind the scenes

Photos by Tim Duffy

From May 18-22, 2025, we welcomed Hill Country blues guitarist Trenton Ayers to our studio in Fountain, NC to record his very first Music Maker album, a collection of electrifying songs and instrumentals which would become Taking It to the Mountain.

One of our newest Next Generation artists, Trenton is a Grammy-nominated blues musician, guitarist, writer, producer, and guitar instructor from Holly Springs, MS. The son of longtime Soul Blues Boys member Earl “Little Joe” Ayers, Trenton started playing guitar at age 3 and was performing by age 6. By 14, he was touring nationally as bassist for the Slick Ballenger Blues Band. He has since performed in more than 20 countries with artists like The Electric Mudd and Cedric Burnside, as well as with his own band, WolfEagle.

One highlight of Trenton’s session: Watching him take full advantage of our new “Freeverb” chamber! After Freeman Vines’ passing earlier in 2025, we transformed his artist-in-residence workshop into a reverb chamber for use in our partner artists’ studio recordings. Between the use of Freeman’s handcrafted guitars in our sessions and this new echo chamber, we are proud to continue his legendary “search for the sound” in the heart of his hometown, Fountain, NC.

Go behind the scenes of this transformative session in the slideshow below, featuring photos taken by Tim Duffy (Music Maker co-founder and Executive Director) in and around Music Maker Studios.

Credits

Personnel

Producer: Jimbo Mathus

Executive producer: Tim Duffy

Lead vocals, guitar: Trenton Ayers

Drums, guitar, keys, vocals: Jimbo Mathus

Bass: John Kveen

Drums, guitar: Kirk Russell

Guitar: Scott “Paco” Goolsby

Backup vocals: The Crimestoppers (Anthony “Amp” Daniels, Christy Moody, KeAmber Daniels)

Recording engineer: John Kilgore

Mixing/mastering: Clay Jones

Album art: Bill Moore

Track listing

1. Blues So Bad (written by Jimbo Mathus)

2. Play On (written by Jimbo Mathus)

3. Run Leo (written by Trenton Ayers)

4. Takin’ It to the Mountain (written by Jimbo Mathus)

5. Getting Funky (written by Trenton Ayers)

6. Insight (written by Trenton Ayers)

7. Snake Hips (written by Jimbo Mathus)

8. Long Time No See (written by Jimbo Mathus)

9. Thang Goin’ On (written by Jimbo Mathus)

Special thanks to The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation and The Peat Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation