Matt Woosey

Event Phone: 01890 750099

Matt Woosey has made a career of defying expectations. His albums break down the confines of genre. His performances span from eyeball-to-eyeball solo sets in fans’ front rooms, to thundering full-band explosions that shake the most prestigious venues in Europe. He’s an artist who slips the creative handcuffs of the industry, a trailblazer with no reverse gear, a guitar visionary whose palette bleeds into folk, rock, ambient and electronica. “You’ve got to keep progressing,” reasons the British singer-songwriter. “Like John Martyn. Like Robert Plant. Like Radiohead…”

Energised by the response to 2016’s breakthrough Desiderata album, and plotting both a new live release and a UK tour with his crack-squad German band, this year finds Matt with his eyes on the road ahead. Yet all the great artists come with a backstory, and there’s no doubt this artist was forged by an early career that took in passion, hardship and redemption. “If I’d been an overnight success,” Matt considers, “I’d probably be way off the rails by now. It’s like anything. You have to do an apprenticeship. You have to grow.”

Right now, Matt stands at his most fascinating creative crossroads to date. It’s two years since the release of Desiderata: the groundbreaking eighth album inspired by Max Ehrmann’s 1927 prose-poem, with music that pinballed between piano, pedal-steel, upright bass and electronica. Capturing the most daring music of Matt’s career, it was toasted by Classic Rock as “one of the year’s most ambitious and electrifying releases”, and the ripples spread far beyond his early fanbase. “The reaction was great,” he nods. “Desiderata picked up people who aren’t necessarily blues fans, because it was a much broader album than anything I’d done before.”

But even as the rock press clamoured for Matt’s attention, he refused to play the game. Instead, following Desiderata’s impact, the songwriter relocated to the remote 1000-inhabitant town of Münchweier, in Germany’s Black Forest. Fatherhood brought a new focus, but music still soundtracked this new life, whether Matt was playing his intimate ‘sofa concerts’ (“They’re like private gigs in people’s living rooms”) or running the local Gallagher’s Nest culture centre with his wife. “We put on everything,” he explains, “from amateur dramatics to guitar lessons. We have musicians coming here from all over the world.”

“It is impossible not to like Woosey’s room-filling voice, skilful guitar picking and genial banter between songs.” Sunday Herald

“Completely convincing and a master at what he does – Matt is the real deal.” Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music

“Very, very good indeed!” Paul Jones, BBC Radio 2