Americana, Baby!

Jimbo's Forever Young is a reach..toward embracing the idea of maintaining a youthful, adventurous spirit, in all aspects of life. But mainly here, it's about music.

(Switching to Jimbo, first-person)

It's also true that I'm not exactly "young." I was given entrance to the universe in 1959 which necessarily places my prime (neurosociological?) music-openness to the early 70s. And luckily, that was a fertile music time and it continues to offer vast opportunities for new exploration. ¶When Dylan called himself a "musical expeditionary" in one of his docs, that made complete sense to and for me. It's what I'd been engaged in, whether I knew it or not, for years. Growing up as I did with a music-educator father (born 1915) I was exposed to musics that he liked: jazz and classical mainly. He was a soulful musician who always placed great value on technical dexterity and adherence to the printed page, but who also loved improvisation. He led the concert and marching bands, but also dearly loved his jazz ensembles. Sitting with him, watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in '64 was strange; Dad wasn't impressed. My mom was shocked by the hair and boots. I was coached to not like them. ¶But the radio stayed on and I heard and absorbed the hits and knew it was important music. And (just like what they said about the war in Vietnam,) the authority was saying something incongruous with what I thought. ¶About that time, at the encouragement of my mother, I picked up a guitar which undoubtedly saved and has perpetuated my life. At least my expressive life. The guitar gave me direct access to the beautiful sounds I loved so well. Starting with songs from easy guitar book songs like "House of the Rising Sun" or "Going to California" and moving on to now 50+ years of (as my dad derisively said "lolling in that rock") figuring out songs by listening to records and tapes, then CDs and now the web and YouTube. ¶Along the way I've been blessed to be able to choose to live in places with rich (or rich-enough) cultural environments that there was always plenty of artistic stimulation. I grew to love world music ("worldbeat" and otherwise), funk, reggae, ska, bluegrass, country, Cajun, zydeco, hiphop, punk...I'm not remembering a dozen more at the moment.

I haven't done a ton of writing, though when I was schoolteacher ('84-'18) I'd use all kinds of songs and raps in the classroom. But upon reaching my mid-sixties I've been trying to frequently work the undeveloped songwriting muscles. I have lots of fragments waiting to be patiently expanded or conjoined into unified wholes. I hereby endeavor to play at least one ideally new original "song" in every other week, in my "Grateful Sunday" sets. They happen every other week at the delightfully quirky Driftwood Char Bar, a south Minneapolis watering hole where Heidi the owner is an enduring supporter of live music. For that I'm forever grateful! I also have a ton of gratitude for Kevin Wick, founder/manager of the Driftwood's Grateful Sundays series, now approaching its 14th year of weekly Grateful Dead shows, brought to us by the Shotgun Ragtime Band. For years, I've had the good fortune to very frequently participate in the Grateful Sundays opening set, first with Eldon Hagen and Brian Green, then with Super Duty. During covid times things were slower and I sat out a lot but Kevin persisted, and kept up his coordination efforts, guided by the selfless belief that every decent music-town needs a regular home for Grateful Dead music and culture. Since the shocking 2024 passage of Minneapolis Drummer-extraordinaire and longtime collaborator Steve Fine I've taken up the task presenting the opening set, during the "even" weeks (710, 712, 714, etc). So really, that's my main regular gig, and I love it. I get to dip into my treasure trove of local musician-friends that I've made over the decades. Mainly we play duos. Look below for a sampling of promo fliers I've made to alert folks to the luminous guests I've had.

Meanwhile, I'm ever on the lookout for interesting and/or beautiful places to play. Got any ideas? Shoot me an email.

Ideally, here is a list of previous gigs' set lists, so you get an idea of what we played..

Good idea! We'll get right to that.

Some of the previous shows Jimbo's Forever Young has presented..

Jimbo & Bobby Weir March 2008