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Matt Andersen has logged countless miles following little white lines down the highway, crossed vast oceans, and left audiences around the world forever changed by his powerful, soul-baring song writing. Those travels have been fueled by a profound devotion to music, a journey that began in New Brunswick with six steel strings. Since then, Andersens work has reached spectacular heights through rich arrangements and fruitful collaboration, but at its core, one musical relationship has remained at the very heart of the whole affair. For his latest long-player, the laid-bare House to House, Andersen brings it all back home with the sweet chemistry that only a voice and guitar alone, together, can conjure. With bright soul, introspective folk, and songs rooted in blues, House to House showcases a more intimate vibe than what listeners might be used to on the songwriters studio recordings - The Softer Side of Matt Andersen, if you will. Over the years Ive come to really appreciate the moments in a show when I can chill out and not worry about making as much sound as possible, Andersen says. Songs that are as much about the space as they are about what happens between the spaces. Big and strong isnt big and strong if you dont have a quiet moment to compare it to. He lets his grand, resonant boom settle just a little after opening the high and lonesome Other Side of Goodbye, allowing for the melancholy to softly seep in, and gets pensive over melodic finger picking on Lookin Back at You. Love songs abound Let Me Hold You sets the scene for a quiet, fireside evening; he paints the town red with the help of Terra Spencers harmonies on Raise Up Your Glass; and See This Through summons strength during a dark period in a relationship. On the ghostly Coal Mining Blues - an older song, recorded here stripped-down for the first time - Andersen zooms in to the individual level, examining the pain that the industry inflicts on its soot-covered foot soldiers. He gets a little help from his friends Reeny, Micah, and Mahalia Smith to spread some good news on the gospel-inflected David Francey tune Time for the Wicked to Rest, and calls on listeners to live fully, despite trials and tribulations, on the soaring All We Need. Finally, the Smiths trade vocal duties with Andersen for the albums heart-swelling finale - a cover of Curtis Mayfields People Get Ready - subtly reminding us that even a solo record takes a village. Behind the scenes, House to House was constructed during this big pause we all landed in, as Andersen puts it, with the www.sonicrecords.ca 2 help of friends and family who hes forged close relationships with over the span of his long career. The title track is a co-write with Chris Robison and Scott Prudence, who built the home studio Andersen had always dreamed of 30 feet from his front door, where the album was recorded live off-the-floor, with no overdubs.
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