In just a couple of years, Spit Cup and the Jukes have ingrained themselves in the blues festival circuit in a way that takes some bands decades. Lead vocalist and guitarist Ryan Washington owns a cement company and didn’t have much time to pursue music before.
Yet, with their authentic take on Cotton Patch Soul Blues, the Jukes have played the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, the Cotton Patch Soul Festival, the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival, and blues clubs throughout the South.
With so little experience, Washington naturally experiences impostor syndrome, that feeling that maybe he shouldn’t be on stage. “There’s still days I don’t consider myself an artist or a musician, because I don’t think I’m great,” Washington said. “But apparently, we’re doing something right, you know?”
Washington takes pride in being one of the only musicians in the world playing a pure form of Cotton Patch Soul Blues. Growing up outside of San Antonio, Texas, blues surrounded Washington, but he never received formal musical training. It was only at 45, when one of Washington’s concrete clients mentioned in passing that he was a guitar player, that he started thinking about playing music in earnest. Washington took lessons from the client, learning Lightnin’ Hopkins and Texas-style blues a couple of days a week.
Seeing Robert Kimbrough play Cotton Patch Soul Blues at the Juke Joint Festival was a revelation, Washington said. “The way Robert Kimbrough is throwing down, I’m like, “What is this? This is some really groovy stuff.”
Washington began to dive into Junior Kimbrough, researching his music. Looking through YouTube videos, he found himself, “trying my best to figure out how to play this man’s music and how—what is he doing? And I can’t figure it out for shit.”
Looking for guidance, Washington reached out to Junior’s youngest child, Robert Kimbrough, on Facebook, saying he was “infatuated” with Junior’s style of blues, and had educated himself on the genre, but “was lost” and wanted a teacher. Robert agreed, and Washington began getting lessons from Kimbrough’s couch in New Albany, Mississippi.
Cotton Patch Soul Blues, the style pioneered by Junior Kimbrough, occupies a distinct branch of North Mississippi blues. While it shares Hill Country blues’ driving, one-chord grooves and hypnotic rhythms, Washington said Cotton Patch places greater emphasis on soul-inflected vocals, lyrical phrasing and a looser, more syncopated feel. Robert Kimbrough told Washington that only two bands are currently dedicated to playing the style in its pure form: his own Robert Kimbrough Senior Soul Blues Connection and Spit Cup and the Jukes.
As Washington steeped himself in Cotton Patch Soul Blues, he set out to assemble a band back in Texas. At local jams, he found most musicians couldn’t pick up on the irregular rhythms and time changes. “They weren’t getting it,” he said.
Harmonica player Adam Palacios approached Washington wanting to get into the sound. At first, Palacios mistook Cotton Patch for Delta blues, but learned quickly, according to Washington. In true Northern Mississippi tradition, Washington’s grandson Jordan joined the band as a drummer and later as a guitar player.
Cotton Patch Soul Blues is unique, according to Washington. “Cotton Patch Soul Blues is hypnotic. It’s mesmerizing. It’s luring. And what makes it unique is that, although it’s blues, it’s different from any other subgenre of blues,” Washington said. “ There’s a lot of subgenres that have a lot of similarity to each other. This is in a class of its own.
Few musicians dedicate themselves to Cotton Patch Soul Blues. Robert’s older brother David passed away, Kent Kimbrough can play it, but often leans into other styles including Hill Country, and when groups like the Black Keys play Junior Kimbrough songs they put their grunge-filled stamp on it.
Washington said it’s impossible to play blues without absorbing other influences – in his case Lightnin’ Hopkins and Texas style blues – but the sound he has developed is almost entirely Cotton Patch Soul Blues. The feeling he gets when he plays Cotton patch is “almost indescribable.”
“You get lost. You feel like it takes you off Earth and drops you someplace that no one’s ever explored,” Washington said. “Complete silence, and then all you have is this groove that keeps riding and riding and riding.”
As Spit Cup and the Jukes expanded their presence at festivals, pressure grew for them to release studio material. The band released their first LP, Spit Cup’s Juke Joint (2026), produced by Scott “Janky” Lindsay, at the Juke Joint Festival this year. Of the nine tracks, most were Washington originals.
One of the strongest tracks, “Clarksdale Shake,” was created live, at the Juke Joint Festival, when Washington “pulled this riff out of my ass,” during a soundcheck and a crowd of about 60 formed, attracted to the groove. The band improvised for 15 minutes, all the way until their official start time on stage.
All nine tracks were recorded live in the studio, with everyone playing at once. Washington returned to the studio to clean up some vocals and add a little reverb here and there.
While Washington is the face of the band, he emphasized all the members built it up together. He added that they are a team and a singular unit, which comes through in their music. Rob Molina on bass, Adam Palacios on harp, and his grandson Jordan have been the core members. Drummer Jahleel Rice, now the full-time drummer, was a welcome addition, Washington said.
“We’re just friends playing blues, is what we are,” Washington said. “We’re just good friends, brothers, that play blues. I’m most proud of accomplishing so much. Like, I’ve been told, right? Multiple people have told me. They’re like, ‘It takes bands years to do what y’all are doing.’”
Palacios, a 30-year veteran, said he had never been a part of something so successful, so quickly, according to Washington. With success, the band has gained confidence. “There was a shift after we played Clarksdale last year. This confidence that you do belong. We’re right there with Cedric [Burnside] and Robert [Kimbrough], and now all those guys respect the shit out of us,” Washington said. “So you know you’re doing something right, you know? All those guys consider us—they’re equal. We’re right in the thick of it with some of the best in the world when it comes to blues out of the Mississippi.”
In the thriving Northern Mississippi blues scene, Washington said he particularly appreciates Duwayne Burnside, Gary Burnside, Peggy “Lady Trucker” Hemphill, Lightnin’ Malcolm, and Jessie Cotton Stone. At the top of the list is his mentor, Robert Kimbrough. Of all of them, he said, “they’ve been doing it. They’ve been living it.”
Especially rewarding, and in true Northern Mississippi fashion, has been watching Jordan, Washington’s grandson grow into an adept, capable musician. “It’s amazing, man. It’s crazy to watch a kid go from not knowing a thing about an instrument, or a chord progression,” Washington said. “He really wanted to play guitar. So he starts teaching himself how to play the guitar by ear. He’s never had lessons, and now he’s my lead guitar player. That’s all in the last four months.”
While Jordan was not featured on the CD, and school prevents him from attending all of the band’s gigs, he is growing into a greater presence within the band. The origin of the band’s name lies in Washington’s snuff habit and his habit of keeping a beer bottle on stage for spitting chewing tobacco. One of the band members started, affectionately, calling him “Spit Cup,” and the name stuck. Before a gig, Washington was asked the name of the band, and on the spot, he came up with “Spit Cup and the Jukes,” which Palacios called as a “badass name.”
Part of the draw of Cotton Patch Soul Blues for Washington is that “nobody else is doing it.” Spit Cup and the Jukes, aside from Robert, stand alone in playing Junior Kimbrough songs, and their own originals, at festivals. “I like playing it because a lot of people have not even heard of it, don’t even know what it is when they hear it. I like being able to explain to them and educate people on what it is, how it evolved, where it came from, who created it, and who’s keeping it going, which is really just me and Robert,” Washington said. “I like playing it because it’s—it’s hypnotic, man. Once you get to riding this one particular groove and can make all kinds of magic out of that one groove and never change your chord progression, it’s just a hook that lures you in, man. People will still get up and dance, and people will pat their feet.”
While all the core members of the band have day jobs: Palacios owns an electrical company, Rice drives 18-wheelers, Molina works in insurance, and Washington owns a construction company. Washington hopes they can eventually play music full time. In the near future, they hope to play more festivals and to tour Europe with Robert Kimbrough.
Washington credits his musical trajectory to Junior Kimbrough, who he has come to know through his sons. “I give it all to Junior Kimbrough. I really wish I could have met the man. I really wish I could have met RL Burnside. [I wish] I could have only sat down with them guys for a couple of months, you know, and just hang out and spit snuff and smoke cigars and drink corn whiskey,” Washington said. “I feel like I know them because I’ve watched every documentary, everything that you could possibly research about those two guys.”
