Here at 16 Clefs, we’re super excited to share with our followers the album cover for BOXERS by Matthew Ryan. Yes, we know we could have just tweeted or posted a photo, but that’s so cold and hope that we connect with you over the combine passion of music, so we are writing this post.
Yes, it was completely inspired by just the news of an album cover!
Crazy how music makes us do things for the good right!?!
So why should you listen to Matthew Ryan?
Let’s flashback to a Tuesday…might have been a Wednesday, to be honest I don’t remember the exact day, but I do remember very clearly the first time I ever heard Matthew Ryan.
I was on driving up Exit 5 on I-85 as I headed home from work. The song was “American Dirt” from his album MATTHEW RYAN VS THE SILVER STATE and it was blaring out the speakers of my Scion.
There was something about his voice that just grasped me, enveloping me into his world. There’s a tinge of happiness and hopefulness masked behind a veil of pain, heartache, and loss. Sometimes the veil is heavy and sometimes it’s a sheer veil where the light can shine through without blinding you. You want to hear a voice like that break the bad news to you and spread the good news with you. Matthew’s voice is as comforting as a small fire on an autumn night and shaped by whiskey and passion. His voice haunts you like ghosts from your memory and just makes you beg for more.
Then come the lyrics of Matthew Ryan: Solid. Powerful. Poetic. Beautiful. Stoic.
These lyrics from “American Dirt” were what caught my breathe and made me stay a little longer at the stop sign, staring at the setting sun. Lyrics that slid into my brain like smoke from a dying cigarette lingering in the air: “I crossed my fingers ‘til they were broke…In my defense, I’ve been spittin’ out American dirt…I wish I’d done something with my life. Something safe, it’s so useless. I move through days like I were a knife. My eyes were blue, now they’re bruises…”
One song is all it took, to make me a life long fan of Matthew Ryan.
Once I got home, I immediately bought everything that was on iTunes and what wasn’t there to buy, I bought physical copies of. I haven’t stopped either. I, still to this day, buy Matthew’s music. Acoustic versions of plugged in songs, buying it. Remixes, got it.
So when he announced his new album title, the date, and the art work, I felt that excitement of waiting for a new album to come out. Like a kid on Christmas morning. Besides, I have already fallen in love with the track “This One’s For You Frankie”. (Watch the lyric video below).
Matthew’s new album BOXERS, will be released on Tuesday, October 14th and this moment in time cannot come fast enough for me. Produced by Kevin Salem and with Kevin and Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem playing on guitar, they join Brian Bequette on bass, and Joe Magistro on drums. The cover art for BOXERS was designed by Keith Brogdon at Thinking Out Loud Design. The cover art kind of sums up the essence of Matthew’s music: an exposed soul, yet parts still hidden and mysterious.
Regarding BOXERS, Matthew says, “I wanted to make a record that sounded and felt like Crazy Horse meets early Replacements. We probably failed miserably. I love this fucking record.”
Matthew is doing a few tour dates leading up to BOXERS release. You can catch him at the following dates/locations:
Tuesday, September 2 @ 7:45 PM, Wooley Bully’s , New Brighton, PA
Tuesday, September 9 @ 7:45 PM, Wooley Bully’s , New Brighton, PA
Friday, September 19 @ 9:00 PM, The High Watt, Nashville, TN
Monday, September 29 @ 7:30 PM, The Bowery Electric, New York, NY
Check out the lyric video for “This One’s For You Frankie” from BOXERS below.
Matthew Ryan: Facebook | Twitter | Website
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdRUzqavoFA?rel=0]