Matt Walsh (from the album The Midnight Strain available on Full Bloom Records)
An early education for Statesville, North Carolina’s Matt Walsh came from the Blues. His mother presented a background with rhythm, giving lessons with her love of Motown while his late uncle shared a record collection that included 1950’s electric Blues artists from Chess and Stax as well 1960’s Rock’n’Roll. The influence is a sound that organically includes the Blues that formed a soundtrack for a younger Matt Walsh, who in turn fills in the sound with his own touches of Country, Folk, and Psychedelia. The blending of genres becomes a fluid torrent on his recent release, The Midnight Strain. Matt Walsh cruises into “Drive Me Away” with the needle buried deep into electric Blues Rock as The Midnight Strain twists the radio dial for a Country ramble in the title track, picks out Folk Blues to introduce “Ike and Daisy”, and meditates on a mantra of trance riffs for “Guru Blues”.
In 2010, Matt Walsh formed a band with drummer Austin Hicks as The Low Counts, the no frills energy of the drum-guitar duo giving them a fanbase nurtured by three album releases prior to Austin passing away suddenly, Matt returned as a solo artist, releasing his first album in a decade in 2017 (Life After Rock’n’Roll). The Midnight Strain stirs a swampy groove into the Jazz-inflected melody of “Sitting on Empty” while Matt Walsh plucks and picks both acoustic and electric notes to hold off the ‘clowns and vampires’ circling in “Don’t Hold Your Breath”, barrels into “Here We Go Again” with a beat to match the stories resolve, and admits “She Belongs to the Bottle” on top shelf bar band Blues.
Listen and buy the music of Matt Walsh from his website
https://mattwalshmusic.net/