In This Story
The joyous, platinum-selling Squirrel Nut Zippers “make audiences so happy,” the New York Times notes, having “latched onto a style with a party built in: jazz and novelties of the 1920s and 30s, driven by the swinging, rolling two-beat rhythm.” The North Carolina band’s introduction on NPR’s World Café gave fair warning to listeners: “If you hate fun, now would be the time move on to another session.”
So how did this raucous and exuberant group—which has performed at the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta, at President Bill Clinton’s second inaugural ball, and toured with Neil Young in 1997—arrive at its zany name?
Band founder Jimbo Mathus explained to the Homer News in Alaska, that the moniker manifested thanks to a caramel and peanut confection dating back to 1926. When brainstorming names with fellow band members, someone suggested they name the band after a candy. Mathus, who used to run a backhoe at an airport in North Carolina and would grab lunch at a little store that happened to sell Squirrel Nut Zippers brand of candy, said, “Oh my God. I have one in my pocket. What about Squirrel Nut Zippers? It seemed perfect for us.”
The candy, in turn, got its name from “Nut Zipper,” a southern nickname for illegal Prohibition-era bootlegged moonshine, and an eventual newspaper headline about an intoxicated man who climbed a tree and refused to come down, even after police arrived. The headline for the story read: “Squirrel Nut Zipper.”
Mathus noted the name “just seemed to be perfect. It was an arcane thing.” Deftly dubbed, the band’s sobriquet encapsulates its campy sense of humor and the sound NPR Music described as “a tongue-in-cheek salute to '20s and '30s jazz.” Mathus told the Miami New Times in 2023, "I think earnestness and satire can work hand in hand," he says. "All the old blues and jazz had this aspect of laughing to keep from crying. They used double entendres and coded words so they could slip things under the censors. We completely embrace that black humor, but our music is 100 percent heartfelt."
Catch the Squirrel Nut Zippers's Christmas Caravan concert this Saturday, December 7 at 8 p.m., followed by a swinging afterparty in the Center for the Arts lobby with local dance group Gottaswing. The festive event will kick off with a beginner swing lesson and demonstration—all ages and all levels of experience welcome, no partner needed—followed by open dancing. Since 1994, Gottaswing has offered swing dance classes including 15 locations throughout the greater D.C.-metropolitan area, teaching over 4,000 students each year. A pre-performance discussion with Dewberry School of Music Professor Graham Breedlove will also take place 45 minutes before the concert begins.