Matt Walsh

Matt Walsh is from Statesville, NC. He does around 200 shows a year throughout the southeast and beyond. His sound is influenced by anyone from Link Wray, Howlin' Wolf , Prince, Black Sabbath or Pete Rock among many others. His primary focus is making original music and mixing his roots with new ideas rather than replicating them. The result reflects an exciting blend of many genres of music - early electric and hill country Blues, Rock, Rockabilly, Soul, old Countryl, Stoner and Garage Rock, Hip-Hop and Psychedelia among others. His exposure to music came first came from his mother through her love of Motown. In his youth, he was fascinated with various types of music and was always anxious when he heard a sound that was different or foreign to his ear. When he was 9 his mother took him to a Prince concert and Matt knew he wanted to be a musician. His real musicial education began in his early teens with his late uncle, who would turn him onto his record collection. It included many kinds of early 50's Rock, 60's Pschedelic and British Rock aside Pre-war, 50's electric and Hill Country Blues. When he introduced Matt to records by Lightnin Hopkins and similar musicians, he was taken by the rawness of the recordings and was inspired to play guitar. When he was 13, Matt got a knock off electric guitar for $25 at a flea market. Rather than going to the prom or attending football games, he set out to learn how to play the stripped down Blues that his new idols played. At the same time, he was also listening and learning from 50's Rock/Sun Records, Stax Soul, old Country, 60's and 70's Rock or whatever else he could find, as long is it had feeling and and wasn't contrived. By the age of 19 Matt began playing gigs and soon after dropped his day job at a hat store blocking and shaping hats to become a full time musician. Matt recorded and released his first album, Hard Luck in 2007. Hard Luck featured all original material with the focus on uncompromising, visceral sounding Blues Rock that reflected Matt's love for guitarists like Willie Johnson (Howlin' Wolf) and Robert Nighthawk. The album enjoyed rave reviews, a ton of independent radio play and a featured spot on XM 74 satelite radio as a 'Pick to Click. In 2008 Matt began touring and playing guitar/Supero Pocket bass with his friend Bob Margolin (guitarist for Muddy Waters 1973-1980) and through that opportunity Matt got to back up his heroes, legendary artists such as Hurbert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. After a chance encounter on Craigslist in 2013, Matt met and started working with drummer, Austin Hicks in their Rock drum-guitar duo, the Low Counts. Together, they turned heads, made an immense number of dedicated fans and blew audiences away with their no frills, high energy Rock-n-Roll show. Their ride together was cut short on March 8th 2017 when Austin passed unexpectedly. The duo released three albums of original material in the four short years they were together (The Low Counts 2014, Unsettled Days 2015, Years Pass BY 2015) and garnered radio play in the US and abroad on some 200 plus stations. Matt is currently working on and preparing for an upcoming solo album he hopes to release in the fall of 2017. www.mattwalshmusic.net www.twitter.com/mattwalsh www.instagram.com/mattwalshmusic www.thelowcounts.com www.facebook.com/thelowcounts www.twitter.com/thelowcounts.com www.thelowcounts.com/instagram Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter/Rocker From: Statesville, NC Current Base: High Point Bands: Formerly of The Low Counts