Matt Mays coming to Tractor Tavern on September 6th
Revered Canadian Singer/Songwriter and JUNO Award winner, Matt Mays, will be giving his growing U.S. fanbase additional opportunities to witness his incredible live show this September. These additional dates will be a continuation of a full slate of gigs across the United States and Canada this spring and summer that saw Matt both headlining and supporting The Gaslight Anthem. Matt Mays is renowned throughout Canada as one of the most dynamic performers around. His live show evokes the full emotional spectrum – from intimate, heartfelt acoustic numbers to all out ragers and innovative jam sessions.
Matt Mays is touring in celebration of is latest release, Once Upon A Hell Of A Time… On this record, Matt straddles the melodramatic and the melancholy. It tells the story of a man in search of love, coping with loss and looking for something more. The record follows Matt’s JUNO Award-winning 2012 full-length, Coyote, and it’s making spans five years and a handful of locales – from the L.A. studio once owned by Elliott Smith to sessions at The Farm Studios in Vancouver and The Sonic Temple in Halifax to The Boiler Room in New York City and Breakglass Studios in Montreal. The bulk of the album was recorded with co-producer Loel Campbell (Wintersleep) during an intense two-month period in Montreal during the summer of 2016.
Matt Mays adds: “This is a snapshot of four or five years of my life that were pretty wild, and pretty lost, and pretty free – in certain ways – and I kind of felt like I was coming to the end of a bit of a chapter. It was a fucking wild ride of emotions and late nights and all the feels. Kind of the record I’ve always wanted to make.”
After departing seminal alt-country collective The Guthries in 2002, Matt Mays went on to alternate between solo projects (his self-titled debut, the faux soundtrack, …When the Angels Make Contact) and band projects (the eponymous Matt Mays & El Torpedo record and 2008’s Terminal Romance). Following the dissolution of Matt Mays & El Torpedo in 2009, Matt released Coyote in 2012 to much acclaim, including a win at the JUNO Awards for Rock Album of the Year. His latest full length, Once Upon A Hell Of A Time…, has catapulted Mays to new levels of notoriety and reverence in Canada and has also seen his international following grow to career-changing heights as well.
Northwest Dates:
Sep 5 – Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
Sep 6 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
Sep 7 – Vancouver, BC @ SKOOKUM Festival