Yellowdog says ...

Bill Abel

Paul 'Wine' Jones

Marty Christian

David Lee Durham

Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes

Willie King

T-Model Ford

Albums:
 
BACK TO BENTONIA

Holmes brings back the spirit of his illustrious predecessors on this album. Several tracks feature harmonica player Bud Spires, the musical partner of Jack Owens for many years. The almost legendary Mississippi drummer Sam Carr also appears on several songs.
Produced by Jeff Konkel.
Broke & Hungry Records, 2006

DONE GOT TIRED OF TRYIN'

Another great album in Bentonia style recorded in the Blue Front Cafe. Drummer Lightnin’ Malcolm provides a strong rhythmic support on several songs and on the traditional "Catfish Blues" Holmes is once again accompanied by Bud Spires.
Produced by Jeff Konkel.
Broke & Hungry Records, 2007

Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes
last survivor of the Bentonia blues

Among blueslovers the small town of Bentonia has gained a fair amount of fame because of a very specific style of country blues that developed here in this hidden spot in the Mississippi Delta. A style which experts describe as a mournful guitar sound and haunting lyrics in a remarkable open D-minor tuning. Blues scholar David Evans called it "one of the eeriest, loneliest and deepest blues sounds ever recorded".

Henry Stuckey, Skip James and Jack Owens were the most outstanding representatives of this blues style and nowadays there seems to be only one man left to play the Bentonia blues. His name is Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes.

Holmes was born in 1947 and has lived his entire life in and around Bentonia. Holmes has always been surrounded by the music of local bluesmen and in the Seventies the fairly renowned Jack Owens taught him how to play country blues.
"I've been around blues my whole life", Holmes says. "It's not really something I chose. I feel like it chose me. I'm just happy that people seem to like what I'm doing."
When Jack Owens died in 1997 most people thought that this specific Bentonia blues style was dead and gone too.


Although Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes played the blues for a couple of decades, he only released his debut album 'Back to Bentonia' in 2006. Many blues lovers were deeply impressed by the album and some critics called it a masterpiece. The album was subsequently awarded with three Living Blues Awards.
When I visited Holmes in May 2007 I asked him what exactly defined that Bentonia style he was playing. He told me he didn't know. "That's up to other people. Blues scholars maybe can tell you. I just play the way I've learned it and I've played it all my life. What more can you say …." He then picked up his guitar and started to play this very peculiar kind of country blues. Yeah, what more can you say…
In 2007 Holmes came up with his second album and his powerful voice and great guitar playing were again praised around the world.