• Matt Hires with Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors
• 9:30pm Seating / 10:00pm Show

SPECIAL WINE OFFER

ABOUT MATT HIRES

When you listen to Matt Hires, what comes across is the sound of an artist self-assured, authentic, and at ease with being completely and utterly himself.  On his debut F-Stop/ Atlantic release, Take Us To The Start, the 23-year-old Florida native fuses the intimacy of the great singer/songwriters with indelible pop/rock hooks and propulsive rhythms.  The result is a mesmerizing collection of songs that are immediately enchanting, while becoming more deeply rewarding with each listen.

Produced by Eric Rosse (Sara Bareilles), Take Us To The Start is filled with delights, most notably Hires’s voice, an instrument striking in its warmth, expressiveness, and ability to convey a multitude of emotions within a single song.  From the first notes of “Honey, Let Me Sing You A Song,” Matt’s vocals envelop the listener, creating an intimate, captivating realm.

It’s that voice that has hooked people since Matt first began playing.  Growing up in Florida, he was introduced to music by his father, a drummer.  “I grew up with music always around,” Matt remembers.  At sixteen, with a growing interest in songwriting, Matt began playing guitar, specifically his father’s handmade guitar that Matt continues to use today.  

Matt initially gravitated toward the punk and post-hardcore scene, becoming a fan of artists like Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional.  But then his musical interests began to delve into the richer past, with classic artists such as Tom Petty, the Band, the Byrds, and The Beatles.  It has made for a singular combination of distinct sounds.  As Matt says, “When I first started singing, I was into the emo/indie scene.  Then I started listening to Dylan and Petty, and somehow, my vocals ended up being a melding of those different styles – something old and new.”

After playing with friends for several years in his first band, Brer, where he got his first taste of recording, he went his own way.  It was via MySpace that Matt came to the attention of Atlantic Records A&R exec Gregg Nadel, who recalls, “When I first heard ‘Honey, Let Me Sing You A Song,’ I was hooked immediately.  It was the only thing I listened to for a week.  His unique vocal tone immediately drew me in.”  Nadel sent Matt an email, expressing interest in hearing more.

Amusingly enough, Matt didn’t believe the email was real.  He remembers with a smile, “I thought Gregg’s email was a scam at first.  But then I called the office, and it really was Atlantic Records.”  Soon after, Nadel traveled to Florida to see Matt play, and was immediately taken.  Nadel recalls, “He completely delivered on what I heard in the recordings – his voice was the real deal.”  Soon after, Matt became the first signing to F-Stop Music, a new imprint under Atlantic Records.

Matt considered several producers for his debut.  But when he met Eric Rosse, fresh off a smash with Sara Bareilles, he knew he had found his man.  “We just hit it off,” says Matt.  “I started demoing the songs for him and soon enough, we were in the studio.”

While recording in Los Angeles, Rosse brought a focus to Matt’s writing, revealing the multi-dimensional possibilities in his songs.  Matt elaborates, “He helped me grow a lot as a songwriter – he made me re-examine things as I wrote them to make sure the song was as good as can be.  He really pushed me to evoke the right kind of emotions, in both the songs and my vocals.”

Matt Hires’s music comes from an authentic and powerful place within him.  “I’m not doing this to be the next big thing,” he declares.  “I want people to see that I’m sincere in my songwriting and that I mean the words I say.  I’m trying to make something that is as uniquely me as possible, making popular music that is a little bit different.” Take Us To The Start fully delivers on that intention, sparkling with the life of a gifted new singer, songwriter, and performer.

ABOUT DREW HOLCOMB AND THE NEIGHBORS

Raised in Memphis and based in Nashville, singer-guitarist Drew Holcomb is, on one level, the sum of those musically iconic cities, a songwriter/performer able to balance feel and craft in a way that can only come from someone informed at once by the likes of Al Green and Steve Earle.

But the main catalyst behind Holcomb's musical voice has been the road. In the past four years, he has logged in more than 650 concert dates across the country from solo coffeehouse gigs to clubs, festivals, and colleges with his band, the Neighbors. He has also opened for The Avett Brothers, Ryan Adams, Los Lobos, Susan Tedeschi, Marc Broussard, Sister Hazel, and the North Mississippi Allstars, to name but a few.

That Holcomb has sold over 15,000 CDs in the process is equally impressive given he has done it all without any major label or music industry support. Not bad for someone who laughingly calls himself a "recovering singer-songwriter."

Holcomb, 26, began playing the guitar and writing songs while a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Two school terms living abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland, a place of spellbinding beauty for the impressionable musician sealed his songwriting fate.

"It's a magical place" he says. "I grew up reading Lewis and Tolkien. Edinburgh is one of those worlds . . . When I got over there, I had all this free time. I didn't know that many people, so I grabbed my guitar and wrote every day."

Those songs found their way on two records, a 2004 EP, Lost & Found, and the acclaimed follow-up, Washed in Blue (its track, "Long Gone Away," has been featured on the Lifetime series Army Wives). A concert album, Live in Memphis, came next, marking the end of his musical tenure in the Bluff City.

In 2006, Holcomb married his longtime friend and singing partner, Ellie Holcomb (ne' Bannister), and relocated to her hometown of Nashville and the way her vocals wrap so knowingly around her husband's will inevitably earn comparisons to Music City's royal couple Buddy and Julie Miller. Holcomb's backing band, the Neighbors (guitarist Nathan Dugger, bassist Rich Brinsfield, and drummer Jon Radford) also live in the same East Nashville area, hence the group name.

The fruition of Holcomb's many travels and life changes can be heard in his new studio album, Passenger Seat, a record of big songs, big gestures, and big heart that asks "How are you going to make it if you go alone?" For Holcomb the answer is, "You can't."

Explains the musician, "Jeff Tweedy talks about why people go to rock concerts and it was an epiphany for me. He said people go to rock concerts because they feel alone and they want to go and suffer with other people. And I was like, yeah, that's why I love music."

"We're all looking for somebody, and sometimes you find that in music."