Matt Harlan

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Matt Harlan is a songwriter's songwriter. He composes landscapes and statements disguised as songs. Often non-linear, but always melodic, Harlan's works confront social norms, celebrate lives overlooked, or just wax poetic about coffee and bus-stops. Whatever the inspiration, the music is always heartfelt and genuine.



Born and raised in Texas, Harlan soaked up the richness of the state and its song-smiths while bouncing between big cities and small towns. Always in love with music, he eventually learned to play and write it. Harlan draws from a range of influences interpreting a generation steeped in plastic and filtered through the Hill Country limestone.



After gigging in rock bands around San Antonio and Austin, Harlan dropped the pick and the power chords to develop his own unique fingerstyle guitar technique. Now back in Houston he is working to promote his earthy, socially conscious sound, which is continually evolving.



Matt's songwriting has been getting some recognition lately with awards from Billboard, American Songwriter and the Houston Fort Bend Songwriting Association; as a winner in the Wildflower Arts and Music Festival and Snowbird Mountain Music Festival, finalist in the Mountain Stage New Song Festival and regional finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk competition.