Jimmy Rea is a musical Swiss Army Knife, doing everything from playing multiple instruments to singing and even producing. It shouldn’t be surprising that his latest album features a little bit of everything.
“Oh, it’s highly diverse. Highly diverse,” Rea said of “Jimmy Rea’s Confluence, Volume 1.” “It’s all pretty much based in a roots feel, (with) soul music, rock music and acoustic music, with sprinkles of funk in there. You’re not hearing a lot of country, not a lot of rap, so I would say rock, roots and funk music is really what it’s coming down to.”
You can hear it for yourself at a CD release concert Jan. 13 at The Riff (1900 W. Sunset St.). Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door, and reserved seating is available. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the music starts at 8.
Can’t wait that long or can’t make it to the show? “Jimmy Rea’s Confluence, Volume 1” is now streaming on Spotify.
Album funded through New Music USA grant
The album was finished in March of 2023, meeting a grant-imposed deadline. Back in 2022, Rea — perhaps best known for his work as a member of The HillBenders — was awarded a grant from New Music USA’s Creator Fund to create a collaborative, multi-generational album featuring musicians and songwriters who are native to the Ozarks. It was the second time Rea applied for the grant, at the encouragement of his friend David Zimmerman.
“He’s a great singer-songwriter and he’s also a professor over at (Missouri State University),” Rea said. “He was wanting to get in and work with me. He found this grant and was like, ‘You know, we could do some songs together and find some other people and go from there.’”
Zimmerman helped Rea navigate the grant-writing process, which included laying out a budget, timeline and scope for the project. Rea said one of the things that was appealing about this particular grant was the freedom it offered.
“Our big emphasis was on continuing the tradition of Ozarks music because we have such a rich tradition,” Rea said. “(New Music USA) isn’t hassling you, they’re not breathing down your neck about social media and branding and all that. You really have a lot of free reign. It did have guidelines and deadlines and data to track and report, but creatively it was very open-ended.”
More than 20 artists lend their talents to ‘Confluence’
Rea used that free reign to hire more than 20 Ozarks musicians, ranging in ages from 18-68, to collaborate on original music. Springfield-area music fans will recognize the names of Steve Ames, Ran Cummings and Brandon Moore among the contributors. Chester Ellis, Norman Jackson and Melissa Rea — who is conveniently Jimmy’s wife — are also credited on the album.
The grant helped pay for artwork and CD production, but it also allowed Rea to pay the musicians. That was important to him.
“All the kids who worked on it got paid and that really gave it a guilt-free feeling of being able to sit there and create without the idea of ‘Well, I’m missing out on money doing something else’ or ‘I should be doing something else for my business and my family,’” he said.
Rea previously worked with many of the artists on the album. While some of the songs started from scratch, he used “Confluence, Volume 1” as an opportunity to cross the finish line with projects he’d already started. That includes the song “I Was Lost,” the last song recording Jackson — a blues musician and guitarist — made before he died in April 2020.
“It was just kind of a demo I resurrected when he passed away,” Rea said. “I knew it needed to be on the record, so we’re going to do a memorial tribute video to him and play the song at the show.”
Rea said everyone else who played on the album will join him at Saturday’s CD release.
Rea fueled by a deep interest in Ozarks music
The eclectic nature of “Confluence, Volume 1” reflects Rea’s own musical interests. The HillBenders were formed in 2008 as a bluegrass band, writing original music and playing bluegrass festivals. They gained notoriety when they recorded a bluegrass-meets-rock-and-roll version of The Who’s “Tommy,” called “Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry.”
The group toured the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom in support of that album. That opened the door to more mashup opportunities with “one man jam band” Keller Williams, including a bluegrass-ified set of Tom Petty music called PettyGrass. Rea has also played the drums for Sugar Foot, which makes country music and Western swing music.
Rea, who also does solo shows around Springfield, played several different instruments on “Confluence,” including drums, keyboards and saxophone.
“I’ve done many, many different things,” Rea said. “I’m in the bluegrass world, but was very much brought up in classic rock. I was raised on some Ozark Mountain Daredevils, listening to their records, and all sorts of classic rock.”
He can easily rattle off a list of other southwest Missouri influences, like Big Smith, Speakeasy, the Barefoot Revolution and even the Ozarks Jubilee.
“All generations of Ozarkian music has interested me,” Rea said. “I play all types of it and give homage to it as well.”
More volumes coming?
Rea says “Confluence, Volume 1” is probably his best work and that he loved the collaborative nature of creating the album.
“It’s got a lot of my spin on it, but I can’t make a record like this by myself,” he said. “I can do a lot of it, but there’s something about stacking your own musicality over and over and over again that’s hard to do. Certain people can do it. Paul McCartney can do it. Regular people do that and it starts to kind of neutralize itself or something. At the end of it, it doesn’t have any life like it would if you have two, three or four people collaborating on it.”
The title of the album hints there might be more “Confluence” in the future. Rea is hoping to make that happen, even without grant money.
“There’s dozens and dozens of people I hope to collaborate with and make more volumes,” he said. “My goal is to be doing this every year or two and having another round of 10, 20 players coming in to do 10 or 12 songs on a record. That’s my hope.
“To get this award was really special, but I hope it’s just a jumpstart to really seeing what a finalized project could be and what that feels like, and hoping that can drive us to completion in the future.”
Want to go?
What: “Jimmy Rea’s Confluence, Volume 1” CD Release Party
When: 7 p.m. Jan. 13
Where: The Riff (1900 W. Sunset St.)
Tickets: $10 in advance, $15 at the door
Learn more: Visit the Facebook event page
