By Steve Hartman, CBS News | About 2,000 miles from Los Angeles, where the red carpet turns to dust, we found this year’s most unlikely Grammy nominee. Every day, 73-year-old Jimmy “Duck” Holmes welcomes customers to his Blue Front Cafe and juke joint in Bentonia, Mississippi.
Holmes doesn’t read music. He doesn’t write music. He doesn’t write lyrics. Yet he’s up for a Grammy Award.
“I mean, I guess it’s a divine thing. I don’t know,” Holmes said.
Holmes is the last of the old Bentonia bluesmen — a brand of blues known for its haunting, hypnotic style. For decades he has played mostly at Blue Front Cafe at events like the annual Bentonia Blues Festival. But a couple years ago, his friend and manager planned a trip to Tennessee, for what Holmes thought was a sightseeing tour.
“I had no idea,” Holmes said about his trip to Nashville to record an album. “He insisted I bring my guitar but he wouldn’t tell me what the deal was. So I said, ‘OK.’ And that’s the way I am. You want to hear it, I’m going to play it.”
That’s how this old time blues pioneer ended up next to eight-time Grammy-winning musician and producer Dan Auerbach.
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The record, Cypress Grove, is up for best traditional blues album.
Read the whole story here and watch the video:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/grammys-2021-steve-hartman-on-the-road-jimmy-holmes/
Best Traditional Blues Album
● “Rawer than Raw” — Bobby Rush — Winner.
● “All My Dues are Paid” — Frank Bey.
● “You Make Me Feel” — Don Bryant.
● “That’s What I Heard” — Robert Cray Band.
● “Cypress Grove” — Jimmy “Duck” Holmes.
To contact On the Road, or to send us a story idea, email us: OnTheRoad@cbsnews.com.
Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1998, having served as a part-time correspondent for the previous two years.