Jimmy “Duck” Holmes

The 5th anniversary release of Back to Bentonia by Jimmy “Duck” Holmes includes the song “Six Little Puppies.” Recorded on November 17th, 2005 at the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi, the anniversary edition of the album is available here from Broke & Hungry Records. Listen to the song below.

Holmes was featured in a Mississippi Blues Project concert. Listen to the concert audio and watch videos from the concert here.

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Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean performed in a Mississippi Blues Project concert at World Cafe Live on October 22nd, 2012. You can listen to the concert here.
Below, watch a few more videos from the concert. Listen to the Mississippi Blues Project radio stream here.

Mississippi Blues Project: Terry “Harmonica” Bean performs “Kind Hearted Woman” in concert at World Cafe Live from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

Mississippi Blues Project: Terry “Harmonica” Bean and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes perform “Build Myself A Cage” in concert from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

Mississippi Blues Project: Terry “Harmonica” Bean performs “Black Cat Bone” in concert at World Cafe Live from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

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Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean performed in a Mississippi Blues Project concert at World Cafe Live on October 22nd, 2012. You can listen to the concert here. Below, watch Jimmy Duck perform “Hard Time Killing Floor” from the show.

Mississippi Blues Project: Jimmy “Duck” Holmes” perform “Hard Time Killing Floor” in concert from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

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Jimmy “Duck” Holmes sang “Devil Got My Woman” at his Mississippi Blues Project concert on October 22, 2012. At the beginning, he notes that he is unsure of the song’s origin, citing Nehemiah “Skip” James, Jack Owens, and Henry Stuckey. All three were from Bentonia, MS where Holmes has lived all of his life. Jack Owens, who sounded much like Skip James, was little known outside of Bentonia. Henry Stuckey, whom Holmes credits as the founder of the “Bentonia style” of blues, was never recorded, nor do we know who his influences were.

Skip James became known to the world of music in the 1960s during the folk revival. His 1931 recordings for Paramount Records had been very obscure; they sold very poorly and single copies are all that survive of some of them. “Devil Got My Woman” was one of these 1931 records. Johnnie Temple, who worked with James for a while, adapted the song for his “Evil Devil Blues.” Temple was one of the great Mississippi blues singers who migrated to Chicago in the 1930s, and, unlike Skip James and Robert Johnson, enjoyed great success in that decade. No doubt Johnson heard the recording by the successful Johnnie Temple, and probably also Joe McCoy’s take on the song “Evil Devil Woman Blues” in 1934, as well as Skip James’ 1931 original recording. Johnson revised the song with new, haunting lyrics (the melody was already a little haunting) into his “Hellhound On My Trail,” on which his guitar playing clearly owes a debt to Skip James.

Below, watch Jimmy “Duck” Holmes put his own spin on the song, followed by the Skip James version from the 1966 Newport Folk Festival.

WXPN Mississippi Blues Project – Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, “Devil Got My Woman” from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

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Merry Christmas from Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – listen to a snippet of “Christmas Alone”

November 19, 2012
Merry Christmas from Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – listen to a snippet of “Christmas Alone”

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, one of our Mississippi Blues Project featured artists has a new Christmas single out. It’s a double sided single featuring “Christmas Alone” backed with his version of “Merry Christmas, Baby.” It’s pressed on a red vinyl 45 […]

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Listen to Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean in concert from World Cafe Live

October 24, 2012
Listen to Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean in concert from World Cafe Live

Terry “Harmonica” Bean and Jimmy “Duck” Homes performed in concert on Monday, October 22nd at World Cafe Live in the second in the series of the Mississippi Blues Project concerts. Look at our photos from the show shot by WXPN’s […]

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Photo recap and review of Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean in concert at World Cafe Live by Jonny Meister

October 24, 2012
Photo recap and review of Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean in concert at World Cafe Live by Jonny Meister

A Blues Night To Remember – by Jonny Meister All photos by John Vettese October 22, 2012 . . . a night to remember for blues lovers. It was the second concert event in the Mississippi Blues Project series, and […]

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Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean in concert Monday 10/22 at World Cafe Live

October 21, 2012
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean in concert Monday 10/22 at World Cafe Live

Terry “Harmonica” Bean and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes are performing at World Cafe Live, Monday, October 22nd. The show is free however you need to RSVP here. Below, listen to some songs from various releases on Broke And Hungry Records. You […]

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Interview with Jimmy “Duck” Holmes by Jonny Meister

September 1, 2012
Jonny Meister interviews Jimmy

• Jimmy “Duck” Holmes will perform at The World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on October 22nd with Terry “Harmonica” Bean. I talked with him in July 2011 at The Briggs Farm Blues Festival. • Jonny Meister: So, Jimmy, you’re from […]

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Terry “Harmonica” Bean and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes playing the next MBP concert at World Cafe Live in October

August 22, 2012
Terry “Harmonica” Bean and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes playing the next MBP concert at World Cafe Live in October

Mark your calendars now for the next show in the Mississippi Blues Project series. On Monday, October 22nd, Terry “Harmonica” Bean and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. Guitarist Holmes, in his mid-Sixties, is from Bentonia, Mississippi and is the owner of the […]

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Mississippi Blues: Select Discography by Jonny Meister

August 7, 2012
Mississippi Blues: Select Discography by Jonny Meister

Pre-War and Post-War Blues: Blues is often viewed in two time categories, pre-war and post-war. While this distinction, like any other, has its limits in organizing blues music, it does generally make some sense. Some artists did record both before […]

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Artist Profile: Jimmy “Duck” Holmes

July 12, 2012
Thumbnail image for Artist Profile: Jimmy “Duck” Holmes

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is a native of Bentonia MS, a place noted in blues history as the hometown of Skip James, who recorded in 1931 for the famed Paramount label and enjoyed success during the folk-blues revival of the 1960s. […]

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