Friday June 14th, 2013
£10 in advance online or from the Barnfield Theatre, £12 on the door

MATT ANDERSEN

In all senses Matt Andersen, from the eastern shores of Canada, is a giant of a performer, with the ability to hush the room with his sensitive playing and vocals one minute, and let rip the next. He is truly one of those acts that has to be seen live. This will be the third time that we've been lucky to feature him on a UK tour and it is a gig that we always eagerly look forward to.

Matt’s newest album, Coal Mining Blues, was produced by Colin Linden (who co-wrote and plays on several tunes) and recorded at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York. Featuring the Band keyboardist Garth Hudson and Olabelle singer Amy Helm, it’s a rich vein of new songs, many addressing the trying lives of working people: There’s the self-explanatory “Work Hard for the Luxury,” and the moving title track, which rings true in mining communities from Cape Breton to Sheffield and West Virginia. But not all of Coal Mining Blues is about hard work, as rollicking up-tempo cuts like “Lay it on the Line” and “Fired Up” bear out.What is it Matt hopes audiences experience when they hear him? “I’m not trying to change anyone’s lives in a big way, but I love it when [listeners] really get involved in the music,” says Matt, performs over 200 shows a year and in 2011 won the Maple Blues Awards for Entertainer of the Year and Acoustic Act of the Year and was nominated for four East Coast Music Association awards. “That’s what really makes it a great night, for everyone.”

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