Matt Andersen

From the first notes of 'Don't Wanna Give In' you can hear that this is a more up-tempo and funkier Matt Andersen than we have seen for a while.
That characteristic bellow is still there but he seems to be looser and more relaxed than his most recent material. There is some fine guitar from producer Colin Linden and the keyboards from John Sheard make it more of a boogie than I expected.

The album's title track is one of the darkest and most heart-wrenching songs you can imagine as he describes the plight of the nations coal miners "black on my hands and black on my shoes, ashes to dust with these coalmining Blues". Everything about the number is designed to tell a story of the hardships every miner has to endure. Somehow he manages to avoid it being cheesy or melodramatic -it is simply brilliant.
'Baby I'll Be' is a superb soul number with super subtle organ and some delightful guitar courtesy of both Andersen and Colin Linden as well as delicious backing vocals from the Meccaby Sisters.
He follows that with a belter in 'Make You Stay' and then one of the sweetest love songs you could ever wish to hear in 'Home Sweet Home' - bordering on saccharine but in the end a beautiful song and with the right airplay it could be a monster.

I saw Matt when he was here last year or the year before. A huge man with a wonderfully full voice and his acoustic guitar playing is dynamite. On this album he is rocking a little more and really puts his music over with a sense of joy. Backing this time around includes keys from The Band's Garth Hudson on a few tracks and a fine bunch of other local (New Brunswick) musicians and the album has been wedded to my deck since I first put it on. There isn't a bad track or a single moment of filler, just around an hour of superb music in many different veins and all held together with that wondrous voice.