Under The Volcano was the venue this night in Houston and it is a very tight drinking establishment that usually only has live gigs on Wednesdays. Being a Thursday, we figured this guy must be worth it and he was.

JM is a self proclaimed redneck who calls his music Mississippi Music. Folk, gospel, blues and country “kind of” explain what he does, but I know for sure he seemed to rock out a lot more than we expected. To say he is a country boy who’s rough around the edges would be putting it mildly. Dude brought a five piece band and jammed it into UTV and came right at ya ready or not.

He’s touring where ever he can nail down a gig behind his latest album, ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ and it played well live. This is his 9th album and it definitely jams when turned loose in a live setting more than in your vehicle CD player. Swampy blues is another good monikor for his style and his main guitar player follwed JM’s lead and let the walls shake a bit for sure.

Guys like Mathus do not come along very often and I dug his aw shucks let’s jam attitude. Having credits on his resume of contributing to albums with Buddy Guy, Elvis Costello and the North Mississippi All Stars speaks volumes.

He’s very popular in the deep south states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and judging how the packed house was whoopin’ it up you could probably add Texas as a fan.

To quote the man himself, this sums up Mr. Mathus: “I break down walls and stereotypes with my music. I confuse people. I use Mississippi Music, which is renegade at heart, as my inspiration and motivation.”

Love renegades and I’m a follower of this crazy one now for sure…Peace and love LIVE music kids!