Matt Walsh

Doing 200 plus shows a year throughout the US, Matt Walsh is a vocalist / guitarist / song writer from North Carolina. His sound is influenced by the energy and guitar tones from Blues recordings that he heard in his youth like Eddie Taylor, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Nighthawk and Willie Johnson, but on any given night you'll hear him use it to rip through the landscape of American music - nasty Blues, Rock, Rockabilly and Soul - blending it all into his own original songs and sound that reflects his love for many genres of music.
His playing, coupled with his soulful vocals have sold music critics and music lovers, who all agree that his stripped down approach to music is original and real and a breath of fresh air from what the general perception of "Blues" music is. But to label Matt Walsh a Blues musician would be incorrect. His primary focus is original music and taking his roots along the way.
Matt is from Statesville, NC and his exposure to music came first from his mother through her love of Motown. In his youth he found fascination with various types of music and was always anxious when he heard a sound that was different or foreign to his ear. Matt's mother encouraged his love of music but his real education began in his early teens with his late uncle who would turn him onto his record collection which contained anything from Jazz to Rock to deep Blues. His uncle was not a musician by any means, but he did know a lot about music and would introduce Matt to early 1940's and 50's recordings of Muddy Waters and Lightnin Hopkins which inspired Matt to play guitar. Taken by the rawness of the two musician's recordings, Matt later found similar artist, Hounddog Taylor, Elmore James, Robert Nighthawk and Howlin' Wolf's guitarist, Willie Johnson with the latter two being a main influence. Matt didn't find much that he liked within the Blues genre unless it had the similar thick heavy raw sound of the recordings by these artist and he had little to no interest in other Blues or any contemporary Blues music.
When he was 13, Matt got a 1970 knock off of a Gibson SG electric guitar (Hondo ) for $25 at a flee market and rather than going to the prom or attending football games he sat out to learn how to play the stripped down Blues that his new idols played. At the same time he was also listening and working on 50's Rock on Sun Records, Hip Hop, Stax Soul, Rockabilly, old Country, 60's and 70's Rock, whatever, as long is it had feeling and and wasn't contrived.
In 2001 Matt moved to Wichita, KS and started playing out in small pubs and clubs (something he felt he couldn't do at home) learning to play out live while perfecting what he had learned from his heroes.
Around this time 2004 he saw some of his work was paying off and he began opening for some well know Blues musicians like Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal. Matt attended a concert in Salina, KS featuring old Muddy Water's band members Pinetop Perkins, Carey Bell, Willie Big Eyes Smith and also Bob Margolin, who discovered Matt when Matt introduced himself at the show. From 1973-1980, Bob played guitar in the band of Muddy Waters, touring worldwide and recording, and learning to play Muddy's music directly from him. Matt and Bob talked about their love for the same kind of raw music from the 1950's and formed a friendship. In 2007 Matt recorded his first official release with some help from Margolin who felt Matt's music needed to be heard. The result was the album, 'Hard Luck' which featured all original material that criss crossed the landscape of American roots music with the focus on uncompromising, visceral sounding Blues.
Matt's approach on 'Hard Luck' was called a "a breath of fresh air in the Blues world" and enjoyed rave reviews, a ton of independent radio play a featured spot on XM 74 satelite radio as a 'Pick to Click and many spots at music festivals. Bob also took Matt on many gigs around that time to help promote his CD. Matt got to play with several pioneers of American music like Pinetop Perkins and Hubert Sumlin.
Currently, Matt is preparing to release his second CD which features some of the original stripped down Blues that can be found on 'Hard Luck' along with other original songs that blend Rock, Blues, Soul, Country, Rockabilly into his own sound. He is preparing to record his third CD which dives even deeper into his own music. Matt likes to draw inspiration from the rawer Blues he's listened to growing up along with anything else he's listened to past or present but his focus is to create great original music that rocks no matter what genre inspired it. He's not interested in being called "Bluesman" or to have his music filed under the general conception of the Blues as being a bunch of Stevie Ray Vaughn knock-offs or music that can't rock. Matt also refuses the boredom and slavery of being pigeonholed to one genre. Stay tuned.



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