Squirrel Nut Zippers: Shell Yeah! Benefit Series

SHELL YEAH! IS A FUNDRAISING EVENT BENEFITING
THE OVERTON PARK SHELL

The Overton Park Shell is a non-profit organization presenting concerts free for all each year! Our mission is building a stronger Memphis community through music, and finding common ground with a diverse audience.  All proceeds from Shell Yeah! Benefit Concerts directly support and power our Free Concert Series while keeping the mission of the Overton Park Shell accessible for all. General Admission tickets are $35, and a limited number of VIP Pods are available for $400 (which comes with 6 tickets and a “charcuterie experience” from Memphis Grazing, and bottled waters).

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About Squirrel Nut Zippers:

The Squirrel Nut Zippers began their musical journey in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the mid 1990’s, as a musician’s escape from the cookie-cutter world of modern rock radio at the time. Jimbo Mathus along with wife Katherine Whalen and drummer Chris Phillips formed the band as a casual musical foray playing for friends and family around town. It wasn’t long before the band (which had grown in size) developed a reputation for pioneering a quirky mix of jazz chords, folk music, and punk rock leanings and attracted a national audience.

Outside of the rollicking concerts which were rapidly growing in attendance, NPR was the first significant national media to take notice of the band followed by an appearance on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. With grunge, and alternative rock in full swing back in 1995, the Squirrel Nut Zippers' debut album The Inevitable sounded like nothing happening musically at the time. After the band's sophomore release Hot became a surprise commercial success, the group went on to sell more than 3 million albums between 1995 and 2003.

Some highlights of this era include performing on Dick Clarks New Year's Eve broadcast; playing Carnegie Hall with Tony Bennet; appearing as musical guest on Sesame Street; performing on late-night television including Letterman, Leno, Conan; having a custom animated video made by The Simpsons; performing at Bill Clintons Inaugural Presidential Ball; multiple sold-out tours, and even getting the keys to the city of Cambridge, MA where the bands namesake candy hails from.

Since those days the Squirrel Nut Zippers have continued to perform to a wide variety of audiences, venues and settings, and have recently released two new studio albums. Beasts Of Burgundy released in 2018 debuted at #4 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart to critical acclaim: “There is, of course, jazz of various stripes (mainly pre-WWII varieties) on this deliciously wide-ranging comeback, but there’s so much more: sounds, identifiable and not, emanating from mysterious times and places, not the least of which is New Orleans, their home base, a land that, forever and still, has a mind of its own.” – Relix

Lost Songs of Doc Souchon released in 2020 is a combination of newly written Zippers material, along with a few songs from past times like “Animule Ball” which was originally recorded in 1938 by Jelly Roll Morton. In keeping with that time period, the band turned to their longtime friends at Fleischer Studios (home of Betty Boop) to use some of their historic animations for a video for the track.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers continue to confound audiences with their hybrid stew of Southern roots music, New Orleans Jazz, Vaudeville, Blues, and a healthy touch of irreverence. Not traditionalists – true originals.