This is a review of a secret Matt Bauer gig which took place in Brighton in April 2008 and was recorded for the Brighton-based Simple Folk radio show.
Who is Matt Bauer?
Matt Bauer is a Brooklynite from Kentucky by way of San Fransisco. He’s an Americana singer-songwriter in the same sort of vein as Iron and Wine and Calexico. Jolie Holland, one of the founding members of the lovely Be Good Tanya’s, is a friend and guests on his new EP ‘Wasps and White Roses’.
What was the set up tonight?
Normally Matt plays with some other musicians - which would have been nice - but he’s still great when performing solo as he was tonight; all he had with him was a banjo and a guitar. Occasionally tapping his foot, but nothing close to percussion.
What was the performance like?
Playing to a select group of people in a small bar in Brighton, Matt Bauer seemed in his element. He certainly looked the part, with a big beard (essential if you want to be taken seriously as a folk contender these days) and a shaven head, making him resemble a certain rock star of heavier persuasions. This was certainly not the case however, as much of Matt’s music is very slight, with whispered vocals and simple but effective melodies played out on banjo or guitar.
Matt’s music is gorgeous, and evocative of a mystical dusty Mid-America, especially the gorgeous and moving Western States - a tale of travelling on the train tracks (which incidentally catch fire later in the song) and on buses to visit a lost love, passing North Ohio and Rocky Junction Beach. Whilst Matt’s breathy vocals meant I couldn’t quite catch all the lyrics, they certainly set me in the right mood, and the sound of the vocals alone conjured all kinds of dusty and deserty images in my head. Another highlight was a cover of a song a friend of his wrote which includes the refrain “never gonna come down”; it was certainly as catchy as he described it.
Matt seemed a very likeable and friendly chap; he chatted to us for a bit about a time he got stuck on a train whilst another caught fire (this after he wrote the aforementioned song about a similar incident). He said he’d only been in Brighton a couple of hours, but liked it - he’d had some nice soup - and had heard about our wonderful Booth Museum and its stuffed animals. I only heard about that for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been here for 3 years!
A superb night of beautiful music. My biggest regret was not buying a CD. Not sure what happened there, but if you’re reading this Matt, I’ll be in Brooklyn all next week so send me a mail (mark [dot] kirby [at] gmail [dot] com) and I’ll come and pick one up from you!
More Matt Bauer
Go immediately to the Matt Bauer myspace and have a listen to his music.
The gig was organised and recorded by the Simple Folk radio show, a show featuring live acoustic sessions on local radio station Radio Reverb broadcasting on 97.2 FM in Brighton and online. Listen to the show on Wed’s at 6PM or Sundays at 1PM and you’ll come across tonight’s recording soon enough.
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