Jimmy "Duck" Holmes

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is the embodiment of raw country blues. He is a celebrated and award winning country blues musician who is regarded as the last of the Bentonia Blues greats. While he frequently plays at blues festivals across the United States and Europe, Jimmy can normally be found in his hometown of Bentonia, Mississippi at the Blue Front Café, the oldest surviving juke joint in Mississippi, famous for its buffalo fish, moonshine and the haunting ethereal Bentonia Blues. 

After Jimmy took over the operation of the Blue Front Café in 1970, it became more than just a place for the local blues musicians to play on weekends. It became the center of the Bentonia Blues with Jack Owens, Bud Spires, Jacob Stuckey, Cornelius Bright, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Hill Country Blues musician Tommy West regularly meeting at the Blue Front Café to shoot pool, have a few drinks and listen to each other play. Jack would teach Jimmy how to play the blues by telling him, “Watch my hands, boy. Watch my hands.”

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes has since emerged as one of the most original and uncompromising country blues musicians playing today as he preserves the Bentonia Blues tradition taught to him by the originals, Henry Stuckey and Jack Owens. Fans of Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and the Bentonia Blues can hear it first-hand almost every day at the Blue Front Café. Stop in and grab a cold drink on a hot summer day or sit by the barrel stove on a cold winter day and, if you’re lucky, Jimmy may play you a song or two. If you’re really lucky, he may show you how.

Jimmy has released several award winning recordings on several blues record labels, including Broke & Hungry Records, Fat Possum Records and Wolf Records. On November 1, 2014, Jimmy started Blue Front Records as a record company based in Bentonia and dedicated to recording, preserving and promoting the country blues of legendary and new blues musicians. Jimmy has completed work on his next CD which will be released soon on Blue Front Records and available physically and digitally through www.bluefrontrecords.com, iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby and select music stores.