Bradshaw Aims To Get People Moving Emotionally
By Tom Geddie Matt Bradshaw is, at 24 years old, lucky enough to make a living doing what he loves best: writing songs and singing them in front of audiences. The 2006 Wills Point High School graduate gets to perform at least three times a week – sometimes four – and has a brand new, seven-song album that shows off the range of his work, which fits loosely into the so-called – and eclectic – Americana roots genre which also includes the popular Texas/Red Dirt country-rock scene that isn’t really Bradshaw’s thing.
He shows on the album that he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into the Texas country-rock scene. “I picked out seven songs that are totally different from one another, to show each kind of different style of writing on each one, to show the variety of stuff,” Bradshaw said. He began writing when he first began playing guitar at the age of 15, and got serious about it a year or two later. His father always had a guitar around, and invited people to the house to jam. “It appealed to me as way to relax and hang out,” Bradshaw said. “This year has been a really good writing year,” he said, admitting that he has no idea how many songs he’s written although that number is well over a hundred. “I try to be as creative as I can. That keeps me moving. It’s always good for me to be writing like I am. Each and every song I write affects me a little bit. Certain songs, I might call favorites. If any one means more to me than the others, it might be ‘Before it Rains,’ but I love the whole CD. That one, I wrote about living
Photo by Tom Geddie
Bradshaw’s music is more true to his influences – Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Chris Knight, Levon Helm – than much of that Texas/Red Dirt sound, which claims some of the same influences. He also gives nods to Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Bellamy Brothers, Billy Joe Shaver, Brandon Rhyder, Rusty Wier, Deryl Dodd, Skip Ewing, Stoney LaRue, Bart Crow, Django Walker, Jerrod Birmingham, Cooder Graw, Tommy Alverson, and Brian Burns.
life, how everybody is trying to do something and everybody goes through ups and downs, good and bad times. You’ve gotta hold your head up and go at it.” The sampler CD’s title is Rough, Tired and Blue. It’s filled with familiar subjects like hard times, perseverance, and longing love. Canton’s Drew Hall produced, mixed, and mastered at Rosewood Studios in Tyler, with musical contributions by Steven Kent (drums), Alec Edge (bass), Wes Hendrix (lead guitar, banjo), and Heather Little (background vocals). “Those guys were just amazing,” Bradshaw said. “Drew Hall and them made a perfect combination. Drew is a great guy to cut a record with him. I couldn’t have handpicked a better guy.” Bradshaw has been performing since he was 17. A lot of his gigs still are in Northeast Texas, and he is slowly expanding his range. “I play all over the region, from Galveston to Shreveport to College Station – anywhere I can – from Stillwater to San Angelo to the other side of Ruston. “Mostly it’s me and a guitar,” he said. “My most favorite shows are when I get to play at The Forge in Ben Wheeler. I love that place, and any time I get to be part of that
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song swap with Heather Little. She is by far my most favorite person to sit down and play with in a song swap.” He doubts he could do anything else than what he does for a living, at least not with the same passion. “I love to play my songs and interact with people,” he said. “My most favorite thing is after a show when somebody says they really like a song because they’ve been there. That’s what we all try to do. We are all trying to affect somebody in our own way.” A good song to Bradshaw is one that “gets people going a little bit, from one emotion to the next. I play some songs that people say, ‘That’s me. I feel you on that.’ That’s pretty much what I want to happen.” Bradshaw fills as many dates as he can, and travels back and forth to Nashville, working on getting a publishing contract to write songs. “I’m constantly listening to music,” he said. “When I’m in Nashville, I’m hanging out with (Canton native) Jeff Allen, who put me onto some people including Buddy Miller and Channing Wilson, and I went right out and bought their records. The more I listen, more I want to write. I don’t want to limit myself.”