Multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins has spent his career delving deeply into the blues, going way back to the pre-war acoustic era of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Despite being born into the concrete jungle of Brooklyn he’s made his musical home among the old-time spirituals, Black Appalachian music, North Carolina banjo and country blues of the deep south that first emerged into mainstream society’s consciousness through field recordings by dedicated early 20th Century musicologists.

Jenkins played saxophone, cello and viola in high school but found his way to country blues through his late teen obsession with Bob Dylan. He cut his teeth busking in New York, now playing banjo and guitar, leading to an invitation to join the Carolina Chocolate Drops ahead of their final album Leaving Eden contributing guitar, banjo, mandolin, bones and vocals to the Grammy award-winning old-time string band. He later joined founding member Rhiannon Giddens’ band before releasing his debut self-titled album in 2016 and later a four-song EP of spirituals The Fourth Day (2020). These lovingly crafted collections form a pastiche of a bygone era played by a virtuoso player with rich tenor voice who sounds like he might have been transported 100 years into the future from where he was (musically) born.

- Sean Myers