Matt Monta

In an age when popular interest in American music—the roots, the blues, the legends and heroes—seems to be growing daily, Matt Monta & the Hot Coal Band paints the pictures and tells the stories that perfectly blend the best of the past with the urgency of today.
The group is led by Matt Monta on the guitar, harmonica and lead vocals. He is a prolific songwriter with a catalog of material that grows daily. He is a storyteller, a poet, and a righteous rebel. He sings of the aspiring loser, the shameless user and the view from the outside in. He sings of wild love and deadly passion, and all the while makes us feel as if his characters aren't so very far removed from ourselves.
After Matt had been performing solo for several years, the Hot Coal Band began burning around him in late 2008. The Hot Coal Band is a group of keen, experienced musicians who are multi-instrumentalists that also write outstanding material and provide top-notch vocals.
On supporting vocals and cello, Bree Frick adds a beauty and harmony that is simply unparalleled Chris Shaw bows the fiddle with such adeptness and precision that he can make the heartiest of listeners shiver with delight. Billy Cory creates a true American feel with his upright bass and brings rock-n-roll to life with his electric bass as well. Pete Vogel ignites a toe-tapping rhythm that is infused with the best of the blues, honky-tonk, and rock-and-roll.
What others are saying.
"At their best, Matt Monta and the Hot Coal Band play like a five-headed, gin-drunk hound dog growling in the face of contemporary over-produced plastic-pop music.
".Maybe it's the tanking economy and rampant joblessness—because the feeling behind the music doesn't seem anachronistic in 2009.
".Just don't dismiss them as another folk-y, coffee-shop, Woody Guthrie wannabe band. The music is earnest and intelligent, and the musicians can be joyful, solemn or just plain rowdy—and they do it with the flourish of real entertainers."
-- Jon Theiss, the Other Paper
For booking or other inquiries, please email: montamusic@gmail.com