The late, great producer, raconteur, pianist, session man, artist and sage Jim Dickinson once called Jimbo Mathus "the singing voice of Huck Finn." Outside the South, Jimbo is likely best known as the ringleader of the hyper-ragtime outfit Squirrel Nut Zippers, or as the catalyst for Buddy Guy's breakthrough Sweet Tea in 2001 and Guy's Grammy-winning Blues Singer album. The idea behind the album's title germinated from Jimbo's interest in regional folklore and art forms. "I got the (Alan) Lomax book [The Land Where The Blues Began] and found myself going where he went and those same places, the same churches are still there and I was finding these weird country people who are backwoods bodhisattvas - oracles, rural sages who are so wise and of the past projecting an image of both peace and rebellion. "Confederate Buddha" is the first album I've written and recorded with a band in mind," he notes, having previously based his recordings around songs rather than players and says the result has a "southern rock feel to it". Jimbo's core band is augmented by guests Forest Parker, Billy Earhart, Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson, Paul Taylor, Paul Morelli, Steve Selvidge, Lightnin' Malcolm and Brian Ledford along with Jennifer Pierce Mathus, Gin Gin Carlton and Rosamond Posey, a/k/a The White Angels. Jimbo describes his sound as "...a true Southern amalgam of blues, white country, soul and rock-n-roll".
