Matt King

I live in a world of contrasts. One inhabited simultaneously by conspicuous consumption and creeping poverty, sprawling suburbs and decaying rural communities. I come from Appalachian forebears who endured the iniquities of coal mines and real bootleggers. It wasn't hip to speak of that past or to trivialize it with hipster cliche's. The people I grew up with are riding D-9 Caterpillars, or they've got a kid and two jobs, or maybe they're a computer tech, but I don't see a lot of places in the mainstream for them to relate." I speak of those for whom incessant stock market reports are but a cruel reminder that there is no retirement fund, and little if any savings. I see the debt-ridden farmers, the single mothers, the drunkards and the spiritually hungry. I walk a tightrope keeping a tension between cynicism, sarcasm and hope. This music attempts to strip away the artifice of contemporary culture to reveal what is, at times, my own sobering view of reality.These days, I fight for and write for the underdogs. Let me introduce you to my own angels and bedevilments, they live, die and are raised in this music.