Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

taken him from an early band called Johnny Vomit and the Dry Heaves to playing with the Squirrel Nut Zippers for Bill Clinton’s second inauguration, “an underdog ragtag outfit standing next to Jay-Z in a reception line,” he says. The Squirrel Nut Zippers grew out of the alternative music scene in Chapel Hill, NC. Mathus himself had already put out music on several record labels. “I never considered music something I would do for a living,” he says. “It was a passion, a calling.” Born in 1967 in rural Oxford, MS, Mathus developed his musical tastes less from the one local Top 40 radio station and more via television variety shows and the local library, which allowed him to do a deep dive into music history. He cites the album The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz as a seminal influence. His father’s side of the family carried several musicians, and from them he learned hillbilly and gospel music. From his mother, who grew up on the Missis- sippi Delta, he was exposed to the blues. When he began to put together what would become the Squirrel Nut Zippers, he drew on the acoustic traditions of his upbringing—mandolin, banjo, fiddle, bass, and dobro. “I thought we could apply that same acoustic and communal vibe I grew up with to this jazz format,” he says. Chapel Hill is “a diverse little town,” Mathus says, and the alternative music scene was home to musicians with kindred eclectic musical strengths and influences. “Some had to learn their in- struments,” he says. “I thought one was a really good songwriter. Another liked Cab Calloway and calypso. Everyone was there to get it started.” The outfit took its name from a pop- ular vanilla nut caramel candy intro- duced in 1926 by Massachusetts-based Squirrel Brand. Legend has it that the candy’s name was inspired by a Vermont news story about an inebriated man found in a tree, who told police that he blamed his predicament on a Prohibi- tion-era cocktail called a Nut Zipper. Locally, the Squirrel Nut Zippers were an instant sensation. “We knew 40 minutes of music,” Mathus says. “We did the show four times that night. At midnight, a call came in to a pay phone. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 27