matthew reveles

Matthew Reveles
We’ll Meet Halfway
Independent Freedom Tribe
Street 08.27
Matthew Reveles = The Felice Brothers + Conor Oberst
This album has put me in quite an interesting dilemma. On one hand I feel like I could make my own maple syrup with how much sap Reveles put into his songwriting. I wish the pity party would stop already. On the other hand he packs the album full with banjos, harmonicas and pedal steels, all that make it one worth listening to. So I’m left at a fork in the road, one leading to Negative Nancy town and the other to a genuine appreciation for obvious musical talent. I think this time I’ll take my cynicism somewhere else and appreciate the record for what it is—a great small-town folk hit. (The Woodshed 01.08) –Lyuba Basin - SLUG Magazine SLC,UT

Arizona multi-instrumentalist Matthew Reveles was raised on a steady diet of Gram Parsons, but while his music builds on the late-great country legend’s legacy with sun-kissed ‘60s and ‘70s-era country rock melodies hanging all over We’ll Meet Halfway, Reveles’ independently-released debut is no Whiskeytown retread. The up-and-coming artist folds in plenty of blues, folk and indie-rock elements into his sound, with some tracks reminiscent of Elliot Smith’s hushed vocal delivery. The overall effect is neither retro nor groundbreaking but simply timeless. Basically, it’s pretty and pairs well with whiskey. What more could you ask for on a Thursday night? Reveles will perform along with local favorite Brinton Jones. The Woodshed, 60 W. 800 South, 9 p.m. Info: MySpace.com/TheWoodshedSLC - SLC Weekly

Singer-songwriter Matthew Reveles knows good music. His release, We'll Meet Halfway, mixes influences of Hank Williams, Buck Owens, Gram Parsons and, surprisingly, Simon and Garfunkel. This show kicks off his Southwest tour from Arizona to Salt Lake City, Utah. It's good to know that true country rock is still kickin'. What Laura Says, Dry River Yacht Club and Dakota Jeane open the show. For age 21 and older. - The Arizona Republic

Valley singer/songwriter takes his really good show on the road
By Benjamin Leatherman


We knew that Matthew Reveles was too good a singer/songwriter to keep all to ourselves. The dude’s got a massive amount of talent coming out his ying-yang, and he’s been filling local venues like Modified Arts and Trunk Space with his rootsy, six-string strummings month after month. (Our personal favorites are the Dylan-esque cover of “Danny Boy” and the country-fried ditty “Mile of Defeat,” both of which can be found on Reveles’ most recent album, We’ll Meet Halfway.) The musician will be spending the first part of January touring a slew of Western states, spreading his folk-pop at such out-of-town venues as The Woodshed in Salt Lake City, The Hi-Dive in Denver, and Burt’s Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque.

Before he becomes the toast of said cities, Reveles will hold a tour-kickoff show at Yucca Tap Room. - Phoenix New Times

A few weeks back I was blown away by local singer-songwriter Matthew Reveles' new album We'll Meet Halfway, so when we started the Sun Sessions I knew we'd have him stop by the New Times courtyard sometime soon, but I didn't dream we'd have so perfect a chance to showcase him.

Both Reveles and Jefferson Airplane-spinoff Hot Tuna will both be playing the McDowell Mountain Music Festival this weekend (Hot Tuna Friday, Reveles Saturday) so we got him to play a cover of "Keep on Truckin." His slower, folksy version sounds fantastic. Check it out after the jump.

check out the video here: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2009/04/sun_sessions_hot_tunas_keep_on.php - Martin Cizmar - Phoenix New Times

We're very happy to see our friends over at the Train Tracks have followed our lead and done a video with local folk singer Matthew Reveles, who first caught our eye with his excellent record, We'll Meet Halfway, and who impressed us both in his cover of Hot Tuna for The Sun Sessions and as an opener for William Elliot Whitmore's show at Chyro.

No embedding enabled, so check out Matthew riding the train here or check out our video here. Be sure to vote for Matthew so he'll be eligible for the Train Tracks battle of the bands they're hosting quarterly at First Fridays.

check out the video at: www.thetraintracks.org - Martin Cizmar - Phoenix New Times

Give it a chance and our city has the power to rewrite your expectations. Take music. Here, on this site, you will see for yourself just how much amazing music is being written and performed all over the valley. This is Train Tracks, the most innovative outlet for live music you've seen in a very long time.

Once a week, we bring you raw and uncut performances from a local artists playing live on the Metro Light Rail. Our city serves as a backdrop. The band writes the soundtrack.

Every quarter, we take the most popular acts and throw a party at Phoenix Art Museum. The most popular band of the year goes on to Tempe Music Festival as well as a few other surprises we're working on.

check out Matthew's video here: http://www.thetraintracks.org/track.php?id=51 - www.thetraintracks.org

One of the things I love best about Bright Eyes (and yes, I unapologetically love Bright Eyes) is the way the band mingles so many rootsy sounds in songs that end up being totally contemporary. It's for that reason, and not just Matthew Reveles' vulnerable, emotive vocals, that I compare the Tempe singer-songwriter to the Omaha outfit fronted by Conor Oberst.

Reveles' impressive album We'll Meet Halfway is full of old-timey instrumentation: guitar, upright bass, jazz bass, drums, harmonica, fake organ, clarinet, lap steel, Dobro, kazoo, whistle, tambourine and shakers. Actually, those are just the instruments Reveles himself is credited with playing; he's also got buddies on banjo, piano, drums, and hootin'/hollerin'.


Fancy playin' alone doesn't make an album, but We'll Meet Halfway is full of gorgeous, well-crafted songs that show Reveles sounding equally fresh and timeless. "Danny Boy," which kicks things off after an instrumental blues track, evokes the classic Irish ballad with an advice-giving narrator, but it's a wholly new song and much more rousing than the way you usually hear the classic performed, filled with great harmonica melody and the layered vocals he uses throughout the disk. Those vocals also sound especially great on "The New One For Reals" which -- and I don't make this comparison lightly -- reminds me of Elliot Smith's "Waltz #2."

And, no, there's no "Say Yes" on We'll Meet Halfway, but "On a Freeway Overpass" is pretty spectacular, painting images of freeways being built and landmarks being torn town, that seem very Phoenix-y, while also recalling classic singer-songwriters of the past few decades.

By the closer, the vaudevillian "Do Due Dew," I was pretty well sold on Matthew Reveles. I realize I've drawn some big comparisons in this review between him and masters of the craft he's practicing, but We'll Meet Halfway is a pretty special record, certainly one of the best local offerings I've heard this year. - Martin Cizmar - Phoenix New Times

MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST: Tempe based singer/songwriter Matthew Reveles played all the instruments on his debut disc, “We’ll Meet Halfway,” from guitars to drums to wind instruments. “I’m currently obsessed with playing lap steel and banjo,” Reveles says.

It isn’t often a musician these days drops Leon Redbone into a conversation, but Tempe-based singer-songwriter Matthew Reveles lists the retro Tin Pan Alley singer-guitarist as an influence on his outstanding new CD, “We’ll Meet Halfway.”

Raised on the west side in Glendale (which he jokingly calls “the underage consumption and teen pregnancy capital of the state”), Reveles also has been deeply influenced by Valley bands he saw growing up.

“The stuff that’s stuck with me has been stuff like the Grateful Dead, Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, Gram Parsons in any incarnation and definitely bands like the Meat Puppets, Gin Blossoms, Grievous Angel — any of those mid-’90s Arizona bands from when I was a punk kid.”

It wasn’t long before Reveles, who was raised in a musical family with a drummer father (“He was the reason I started playing music,” Reveles says. “He’s one of the best drummers I know.”) and guitarist mother, began plying his trade in the same Valley clubs, such as the Rhythm Room, Modified Arts and the Yucca Tap Room, in which he’d previously hung out.

While Reveles has played with backing bands, he accompanies himself with an acoustic guitar.

“I was kind of, for lack of a better word, 'forced’ into singer-songwriter status due to not being able to find other musicians on the same wavelength,” Reveles explains. “While I enjoy the solitude sometimes, and the ability to write without criticism, I still like having other brains to bounce ideas off of.

“But I do have to admit,” Reveles adds, “that I often get to the point where I am happy to be able to take the stage solo, just me and a harmonica and guitar, and a glass of whiskey.”

A multi-instrumentalist — the liner notes on “We’ll Meet Halfway” have him playing all of the instruments himself, from drums to guitar to lap steel to clarinet — Reveles says the recording process took the better part of a year, during which time he lived at all-acoustic Tempe venue the Peace Tree House, where Reveles recorded the disc with engineer Marc Pedraza.

“The sessions were worked around my (work) schedule, so they never started before 1 or 2 a.m., sometimes going until 7 or 8 in the morning, leading to celebratory drinks at the Yucca (Tap Room), which opens at 6 a.m.,” Reveles says. “I would get off work, record, sleep, go back to work.

“It was fun and grueling at the same time,” Reveles adds. “I think the easiest parts to record were the ones I had originally planned on doing myself, the guitars and vocals. Most of it was a pretty smooth process — I think the majority of what you hear on the album was done in one or two takes.”

From the bluesy opener “Give It a Try” to the Dylan-styled country stomp of “Danny Boy,” the Redbone-influenced ragtime guitar instrumental “Whiskey Bar Guitar” and the beautiful vocal harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel-esque “The New One for Reals,” “We’ll Meet Halfway” is a tour de force of some of the finest music the Americana genre has to offer.

“I’m actually already writing songs for a second album,” Reveles says of his plans. “Some of the songs on 'We’ll Meet Halfway’ I’ve been playing for so long, and listening to them over and over in the studio has encouraged me to come up with some new tunes. (My backing band and I) are working on making ourselves road-ready, individually as musicians and as a band.

“And we’re also working on a clothing line to rival J. Lo.’s,” Reveles laughs.

>> Matthew Reveles performs 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, at Modified Arts, 407 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix. $7. (602) 462-5516 or modified.org.

- Chris Hansen Orf, Get Out - Chris Hansen Orf -Get Out! magazine

About a month ago, I posted a blog asking Phoenix artists to send me their CDs for review. This week, I review the latest disc from Valley singer/songwriter Matthew Reveles, whom I first saw perform back in 2002 at a “Battle of the Bands” at ASU West. He’s come a long way.

Matthew Reveles
We’ll Meet Halfway
(Independent Freedom Tribe)

Reveles reveres the ’60s, and his affinity for retro harmonies and stripped-down traditional folk is apparent on every track here, even if the album does open with the bluesy instrumental “Give It a Try.” The following track, “Danny Boy,” is back porch folk, right down to the country gee-tar picking and hand claps. Similarly, “Oh My Lord” sounds very Bob Dylan-meets-Ryan Adams (in an alley for a drunken jam tribute to Townes Van Zandt). Other songs, like “The New One for Reals” and “Maybe Sometimes,” resemble dreamy Beatles tunes, laden with overdubbed vocal harmonies. Except for rare moments like the whimsical pop ditty “That Girl” (which includes quirky horns, a kazoo, and the lyric “She’s got a PhD in LuV”), Reveles’ songs invoke images of melancholy Americana -- dusty back country roads, hippies hopping trains, and forlorn folks sippin’ whiskey on rickety plankwood porches. In fact, much of Reveles’ harmonic troubador twang seems to draw inspiration from a bottle, as he sings in the song “Late Night Lullabies”: “Never mind these constant cries/They’re just drunken, late night lullabies.”

-Niki D’Andrea - Niki D’Andrea -Phoenix New Times