Jas Mathus & His Knockdown Society – Play Songs For Rosetta (1997)

The concept doesn't sound too promising at first: White hipster Jimbo Mathus (of Squirrel Nut Zippers fame) forms a band to play Delta blues songs in honor of his family's beloved and ailing maid, Rosetta Patton Brown. The results, however, are pretty remarkable. Recorded in New Orleans and Clarksdale, Mississippi, with a bunch of friends, volunteers and old-school players providing backup, Play Songs For Rosetta is full of warm, heartfelt blues originals, traditionals and covers of songs by old-school legends like Leadbelly and Rosetta Patton Brown's father, Charley Patton. (All proceeds from the record go to Brown and her family.) Mathus is a fine blues singer and songwriter—he wrote half of these 14 tracks himself, and his vocals are simultaneously haunting and celebratory—and as a bandleader, he inspires excellent performances from his friends and neighbors. Most importantly, Mathus' reverence for the material translates into a record that's almost as fun to listen to as it clearly was to record: Listen to the 1901 song "I Got Mine" or Mathus' new "Goin' Down The Road," and see if they don't improve whatever mood you're in.