Matt
King

Matt King grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, fourth generation in a family of bootleggers, preachers, and splintered women. He worked in a goldsmith shop and an auction company, had his own concession business by thirteen. Hard work is all he's ever known. He came up at the feet of honest to God mountain people singing songs about dying and losing lovers, resentments and redemption.

In 1997, Atlantic Records released Five O'clock Hero. A year later, Hard Country, which USA Today and People Magazine named a critics' favorite for both traditional country albums that year. He played the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman, the Greek in Hollywood, CMA Fest mainstage, House of Blues, the Ottawa Blues Festival. He recorded with Vance Powell, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss, Jay Joyce.

Then he went independent. Rube in 2008, which the New York Post voted one of the year's top ten new artist releases. He kept writing. Kept recording. Raw, Matt King and the Cutters, Apples and Orphans, Midnight Oil and Holy Water. Over 400 published songs and counting. Nashville is still home. The studio is still there.

He's been doing this in empty rooms and full ones most of his life. It never mattered who showed up. The song was going to show up either way.

He comes from people who don't explain themselves. Appalachian and accountable by choice. Every word, every note mattered. Learned it the hard way. He's buried more than he's kept, which means every melody costs something. Not hungry anymore. Inevitable.

Songs written to stay alive. Songs written to put ghosts in the ground. He learned to write from inside the fire. Lived with the bitter bite of silence and built a fire with words and broken hands. Lived in the middle of a deep dark holler and built a ladder from faith he had to borrow until the rungs appeared. Built things nobody asked for. They're still standing.

Still on. Still singing, praying, and witnessing from the mountain when everyone else went home.

He's still writing. He's still here.