Michigan based Matt Lenny released his latest single just before Christmas, and it acts as a taster for the album ‘For the Birds‘ which will be out in Spring this year. Lenny recorded it with his band The Breakdown after rediscovering his acoustic folk and country-gospel tinged roots having been in a more of a rock groove pre-pandemic and making records in Chicago and New York. He also cites a lucky encounter with an Americana legend telling that “I was sitting in Matt Umanov Guitars in Greenwich Village and in walks Steve Earle. He picked up an acoustic guitar and just started strumming some chords. And…I don’t know how to put it except to say that, when he played G and C, it was every country song ever written. When I played G and C, it was just a couple of chords. But, when he did it, it was deep; it had soul and groove and power. It really blew my mind. I’d been touring the country with all these loud rock bands and had all these fancy guitar chops, but he had the song in every strum. I’ve been chasing that ever since.”
Speaking of this song in particular Matt Lenny says “I think the feeling that someday, somehow things will be better is universal to the human condition. I think that’s why old country gospel tunes have such power, even if you might not personally agree with all the lyrics: they speak to that longing. Whether it’s a religious idea or something closer to science fiction, we all know this world can be broken and cruel, and we all long for some sort of better realm. That’s what I think this song is about.”
