When the Houston Press last spoke with Jimbo Mathus, the singer/guitarist and head honcho of the revivalist ensemble The Squirrel Nut Zippers, they had just released one of their more interesting efforts, Lost Songs of Doc Souchon.

It featured both originals penned by Mathus and covers of tunes and performers associated with old, old New Orleans including Lead Belly, Jelly Roll Morton, Stephen Foster, the Rev. Fred Lane and New Orleans Willie Jackson. It felt right at home for the band’s signature sound calling up the spirit of ‘20s/’30s hot jazz, blues, swing, ragtime and torch songs.
And though his name sounds like a fantastical, mythical creature,  Edmund “Doc” Souchon (1897-1968) was indeed a real person. His resume included entries as a jazz musician, journalist, nightclub manager, and collector/protector of New Orleans music. He was also a co-founder of both the National Jazz Foundation and the New Orleans Jazz Museum. And his primary musical passion was in the city’s string band music, some of the earliest to come out of the city.

Unfortunately, that record happened to come out in the fall of 2020, so Mathus and the then-Zippers couldn’t tour to support it. Fast forward nearly four years later and the band (in a slightly different incarnation—Mathus is the sole original/consistent member since the group’s 1993 founding) is ready with the show “Jazz from The Back O’ Town.”

“This is the show I would have liked to have done back then—I just hadn’t thought of it yet!” Mathus laughs over the phone. And indeed, this tour will have a different look and feel from the more raucous rock-and-roll-like Zippers shows of recent years. The audience will be seated, and the male and female band members are all dressed in formal wear.

“It’s like going back to the very first gigs we did in Chapel Hill, North Carolina has a hot jazz band. We’re even miking it like an acoustic band with a warm sound,” he continues. “It represents what we are now and what the Zippers stand for. With the age, the skill set, and the microphones we have now, we can do it. It’s more proper.”

“O’ Town” is an actual location, a nod to a specific, music-heavy section at the back of New Orleans from a century ago and is right in theme with Lost Songs of Doc Souchon. The show will also feature favorite SNZ material “reimagined” in an even more N'awlins 1920s style, and Mathus will provide background and commentary throughout. The tour stops in Houston at the Heights Theater on March 22.
“I hope that people come away with a sense of the deeper roots of the music and not just what they think of as the stereotype of New Orleans,” he continues.

“I’m trying to tell a story, almost like American Music in New Orleans 101. But it’s still lively. There’s a lot of energy. Louis Armstrong. Fats Waller. Jelly Roll Morton. Buddy Bolden. It’s a spirited show, but we keep it moving and light. And there’s show biz in there. I call it a ‘conjuring.’”
Mathus adds that the Zippers now have two generations of fans listening to them, and they’ve gone well beyond being viewed as “fake nostalgia” (and no one is going to confuse this group with, say, the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies from back in the day of the late ‘90s “swing revival”).

“I feel a responsibility to this music. I always have,” he says. “And I think that our roots are more in Kurt Weill than Benny Goodman or Louis Jordan. More hidden, subversive music. We do some of that Jelly Roll Morton whorehouse jazz. And you had to memorize the lyrics back then because a lot of them were never written down.”
As for the future, Mathus says that he’s got another Squirrel Nut Zippers record on the horizon almost written, one with a definite O’ Town feeling. Then he’s working on another record with his rock band, just one of many side projects he seems to find himself involved with.

Finally, as to his thoughts on streaming and how music is discovered and consumed in 2024, Mathus says it’s “great” that his work over his entire career is out there and more accessible than ever. Even if the royalties he used to make on big physical album sellers like Hot and Perennial Favorites are gone.

“I’m not in this for the money. Never have been!” he says laughing. “I’ll figure out how to do that some other way!”

The Squirrel Nut Zippers present “Jazz from The Back O’ Town” at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 22, at the Heights Theater, 339 W. 19th. For more information, call 214-272-8346 or visit TheHeightsTheater.com. $28 and up.

For more on the Squirrel Nut Zippers, visit SNZippers.com.
For more on Jimbo Mathus, visit TheRealJimboMathus.com.