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Upcoming shows:
No shows booked at the moment.
Quotes:
"Matt King writes and sings songs that are so achingly true to life that they make you want to cry, or ball up your fists, or burn something down. He writes and sings not in silly cliches about a South that no longer is, but about the scourges of my modern South, about meth and layoffs and men and women grabbing for their last hope. And somehow, it makes it a joy to hear. " -RICK BRAGG"Matt King is a helluva musician and songwriter. As a performer, he delivers better than Fedex. When you finally go numb from the ubiquitous cyborg drone that passes for music these days, listen to Matt King. Your ears will thank you" -ROBERT EARL KEEN"Matt King? Brilliant, visionary, brave, accomplished, gritty, troubadouring story telling carny, handsome charming good boy, bad ass outsider, changeling. Talented, hardworking, captivating, powerful." -MARY GAUTHIER"Matt King has a voice that cuts to the core of the soul. His voice reminds me alot of the late Lefty Frizzell and Keith Whitley." -PATTY LOVELESS"the southern gothic rocker sounds part revivalist preacher, part carnival barker... -USA TODAY"The lead-off track to Matt’s brilliant new CD Rube, is a declaration of independence if I’ve ever heard one." -ROBERT K. OERMANN"In the cracks between mournful mountain music, bright bluegrass and straight-up rock, North Carolina native Matt King has found a unique style that fits his tales oF backwoods saints ad sinners.. -NEW YORK POSTLinks:
About
I grew up in the mountains of Hendersonville North Carolina. I come from a long line of pillars of the community........Hatfields to harlots, and a preacher or two. I had a great aunt that boarded up the windows of a house and set it on fire with her husband in it and a grandmother that shot her husband, so needless to say, I approach love with caution. There were the obligatory bootleggers in Dark Corner South Carolina and my Great grandpa B.T. Wright was a trainman in Eastern Kentucky, he also worked in the coal mines. Bluegrass music makes me homesick, and books make me want to never go back. I'm a walking contradiction,(like the man said) partly truth and partly fiction. I did a stint for a Atlantic Records in the 90's, rode on a big bus and then learned how to tour the country solo in a truck following someone else's big bus. I'd drive with one hand on the steering wheel and write songs on a pad beside me with the other. (NOT recommended!) Dylan, Guthrie, Cash...they all had their say and the last thing I wanted to try and do was be prophetic or profound. I just wanted to find a thread of honesty the same way they seemed to. I was the shortest, skinniest, most gullible and scared kid I knew, and as an adult, I felt more like a misfit than I did as a child. It was around 9-11 and all of the political/social fallout from Columbine that made me start thinking that just maybe we were on the brink as a society..... I now write and perform "Southern Friction" music, tour and write for film and television. Songwriting makes me try and say something honest and somehow connect to the world around me..sometimes it makes me do just the opposite and I swear that I'll never get out of my own head. I love hobos, knives, the 1930's, old books, and all things arcane or esoteric. Oh, and prime numbers are pretty compelling. ........ "I wear my soul like a hobo's skin, hard as leather with a toothless grin."





