Jimmy “Duck” Holmes: Cyprus Grove

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes
Cypress Grove
(Easy Eye)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Even music fans who don’t like the Black Keys have to acknowledge the band’s frontman/guitarist/producer/Easy Eye studio and label owner Dan Auerbach’s obvious love of the blues. It’s the driving force for recordings of such under-the-radar names as Robert Finley, Leo “Bud” Welch and now Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. Auerbach finds obscure, mostly older but working blues artists, records new albums with them in a professional studio and promotes/exposes their talents to what is likely a whole new audience. They probably don’t sell well but that’s clearly not his concern. 

Holmes has eight other albums under his belt yet is relatively unknown even in the blues world. He runs a juke joint in Bentonia, Mississippi (Blue Front Café, apparently the oldest such establishment in the country) started by his parents. It’s where the so called “Bentonia blues” lives and breathes. Fortunately, we don’t need to take a trip there to soak in that unique sound; Auerbach brings it to us on the gritty Cypress Grove.

Even though a handful of these eleven tracks are credited to Holmes, he’s not much of a songwriter. Rather he digs into a John Lee Hooker/RL Burnside-styled reserved stomp, repeating riffs for an entire song while moaning about the usual blues tropes of drinking, women and on “Gonna Get Old Someday,” ageing. Most of these selections have appeared on previous Holmes albums, but one of the concepts of Bentonia blues is that the songs are seldom played the same way twice. Hence the appearance of blues archetypes like “Rock Me,” “Catfish Blues,” and “Little Red Rooster,” all performed in relatively stark versions that alter the melodies and often even the lyrics. The arrangements transform these classics into versions you haven’t heard before, and may not hear again.

Holmes’ mournful voice infuses pain, hurt and sensitivity into acoustic takes of “Devil Got My Woman” and the title track. While these takes were recorded at Auerbach’s Easy Eye recording space, it seems like they were captured late at night in someone’s living room with plenty of liquid refreshments imbibed. The music lives, breathes, pulses and occasionally rocks out with a musky, dusky, swamp heavy vibrancy seldom captured in a studio setting. Auerbach brings in guest guitarist Marcus King who adds sizzling slide to a Latin tinged “All Night Long” that seems to just be gaining momentum as it fades out.

The rawness of Holmes’ approach and the sheer down-home intensity of everything here may be too stark and unfiltered for most listeners. But thank Auerbach for capturing this most primal of blues music played with the loose, seemingly unrehearsed power and hypnotic force of what most will never experience unless they enter Holmes’ club on a sweaty Saturday night.