The Too Bad Jims

The Too Bad Jims got their name from the seminal Fat Possum album "Too Bad Jim" by the hugely influential blues musician RL Burnside. The band plays a gritty high-octane mix of North Mississippi Hill Country blues and boogie.

It all initially started as a casual collaboration between two veteran and multiple award-winning musicians, Little Victor and Son Jack Jr. and they shortly after rounded out the trio with the one and only Nick Simonon (Brother of Paul Simonon of The Clash) on drums and things really started cookin’!

Their unique and unusual combination of dual rough and ready vocals, bare-bones electric guitars, slashing bottleneck, and a heavily rhythm-oriented groove, delivers a hypnotic, raw, and earthy sound typical of a North Mississippi juke joint.

After relocating to the London area from Seattle, Washington USA, Son Jack Jr (an avid long-time player of this style of blues) got in touch with Little Victor Mac whom he had befriended on social media since Victor's glory days with Louisiana Red in the late 2000s

The two men never met in person until a couple of years ago but ever since their first jam, they sounded like they’d been playing together since day one. Little Victor (who moved to England a little before Son Jack Jr.) has deep knowledge of this style of music, particularly RL Burnside. 

When he was younger, he played with RL Burnside, Robert Belfour, Jessie Mae Hemphill, and many other "backwater" artists from the Memphis/North Mississippi area. His dear ole uncle David Evans is responsible for Burnside's first recordings by George Mitchell in 1967. Years later, Evans managed and recorded RL, Junior Kimbrough, and Jessie Mae Hemphill for High Water Records.

Victor's cousin legendary "cult" artist and filmmaker Tav Falco first filmed RL in his juke joint in the early 1970s and Victor clearly remembers watching this video over and over again when he first started to play guitar. Burnside himself showed Victor how to play Black Mattie, Long Haired Doney, Skinny Woman, and many other songs on this album

Nick Simonon (who played with Pearl Harbour and toured with The Clash, The B-52's and Talking Heads, among many others, sounds just like RL's grandson Cedric Burnside playing drums like his father (and RL's first and "historic" drummer) Calvin Jackon, keeping the trio "loose" and "together" at the same time.

They just recorded a killer debut album titled "Over The Hill - A Tribute To RL Burnside" a selection of well-known to fairly obscure songs from Burnside's repertoire totally in the spirit of RL's album "Too Bad Jim." Opting for the same type of funky, low-down approach that gives the music an immediacy that more polished blues albums lack. The single from this album "Miss Maybelle" has been acclaimed on both sides of the pond and received very positive feedback. Unsurprisingly The Too Bad Jims live performances sound just the same. If you dig this type of music go see them live! 

If you prefer, you can also contact the band direct via Son Jack Jr at sonjackjr@sonjackjr.com