Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition "Dark Night Of The Soul"

I caught most of you saying,"Who?!"  Let's try Squirrel Nut Zippers.  Ahhh, now I hear all those collective bells ringing...  The Zippers were one of those rare niche bands that happened to sell more than just one hit.  Mathus has traipsed across the South doing different things since the Zips folded around the turn of the century.  He engineered an album for one of those great bands from North Carolina that no one ever hears about outside the state lines, Hobex.  He played with Buddy Guy, befriended Luther Dickinson of the N. Miss. Allstars, worked with/in bands which all of you know and love like South Filthy, The Jelly Roll All-Stars, Jack Oblivian & The Tennessee Tearjerkers, The Hill Country Revue, and everybody's favorite, The South Memphis String Band.  Sarcasm aside, my point is he makes music for the music's sake, not for the commercial aspect of it.  He's immersed himself in all genres and has become quite the historian.  I bought this in early May based on his pedigree, no sampling.  It's not as if I own all those previously mentioned monster bands or any of his other self-titled work, either.  I don't truly know when the damn thing came out.  I've seen February and March dates for release and one site said it came out in 2013.  It really doesn't matter because not enough humans will ever hear this and it's a shame.  I'll admit that the first spin through it offered little hope for a keeper and the second replay yielded only a slightly improved outlook, but if you can make it a third time through the lineup......well, let me toss out some of the names that bubbled up through the mire:  Jimmy Hall, The Band, a little of the Zippers, a lot of John Hiatt, JC Mellencamp, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones have a case for plagiarism on one track deep in the queue (I would have sworn he was covering "Angie"), and another invoked that great Atlanta band, The Swimming Pool Q's (that's no shit...I loved that band!).



That has the Hiatt all over it.  This one does, too...



I'm just short of calling him a southern Les Claypool but I'm not far off, am I?