Music has worked its way into nearly every aspect of today’s culture. Something in a song immediately sends the brain into a complex reaction involving impulse, memory, and emotion. This phenomenon has been the basis for everything from religious ceremonies to battle calls to jackpots on the slot machine. It’s no surprise that many folks have attempted to exploit it just to make a few bucks. Down in Mississippi music has a way of appearing as a near primitive expression – radiating directly from the soul. It is often found late at night coming from a sweaty bar or juke joint or porch swing, long after the day is done. There you’ll find theperformers and audience entangled in a dancin’, playin’, hootin‘ and hollerin’ room of energy bursting at the seems.
It is this basis that sets the Mayhem String Band apart from many of their peers. Gone are the polished edges of contemporary taste and Nashville production. These distractions are replaced by the energy and emotion of performers who understand the unbridled force of live music. Their brand of outlaw bluegrass conjures up the ghosts of Bill, Jimmy, Hank and Waylon by creating chaos and taming it in the same performance. These men play string music, raw and aggressive, with the simple hope that people will listen up, catch the buzz and get to dancin’.
The Mayhem String Band has its roots in Oxford, Mississippi where 4 veteran musicians of the music scene got together and formed a bluegrass band in 2005. Ben Johnson (Bass), Chris Steiner (Guitar), Jamison Hollister (Fiddle, Mandolin) and J.T. Lack (Banjo) took on a weekly gig that eventually became known as “Wednesday Night Mayhem”, born out of the whiskey-soaked dance floor and general insanity that seemed to follow the band around. After months of numerous shows in the hills of North Mississippi they settled on the name Mayhem String Band, also an acronym for “May All Your Hangovers End Miraculously.” In February of 2006 Kevin Larkin, creator of the Spaghetti Western bluegrass band "Pineross," moved from Boulder, Colorado to join the band on mandolin, accordion and harmonica.
Just 3 years and hundreds of shows later, the Mayhem String Band has taken their bluegrass sound to a new level, incorporating Cajun two-steps, Irish jigs, and a chunk of Mississippi blues. Each member of the band writes songs, injecting familiar traditional sounds with the madness that defines the world today. The result is a live show balancing songcraft, instrumental virtuosity, heart-wrenching harmonies and a plain ole’ good time. They deliver this concoction in an all-out assault of music on whomever may be listening.
These 5 players have been taking their brand of Mississippi bluegrass all over the country playing over 170 shows a year. Their second album, Land Pirates, was released in March of 2009. It was recorded at Delta Recording Service with producer Jimbo Mathus and also features Ferd Moyse (Hackensaw Boys) on fiddle.
