The last surviving bluesman of what became known as the Bentonia School, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes is known for both his own sparse, haunting blues style and as the longtime proprietor of the Blue Front Cafe, America's longest-operating juke joint located in his hometown of Bentonia, Mississippi. Following in the tradition of Bentonia forebears like Henry Stuckey and Skip James, Holmes' dark and earthy approach represents a specific regional strain of country-blues which utilizes open E-minor and D-minor guitar tunings and often results in eerie, complicated chord voicings. Although he first picked up a guitar in the late 1950s, his professional music career didn't begin until the '80s and '90s, when he appeared at regional -- and later national and international -- blues festivals. A smattering of recordings exists from his early ...
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