“And this living on the road is getting pretty old”, William Matheny considers life as a touring musician on his new single ‘Down at the Hotel Canfield’. Dubuque Iowa doesn’t get mentioned much in the mythology of the American songwriter but it is the centre of the universe for Matheny one night as he contemplates his fate. The track has hints of homage for Rick Danko but stands on its own with a lyrical piano leading the way and solid rhythm section chugging along like the mighty Mississippi.
Along with its sister venue The Lift, The Hotel Canfield represents more than just another tour stop for Matheny, “The noted 78rpm label Brunswick was founded there, the surviving members of the 1959 Winter Dance Party tour played there—eight days after the music died to be exact—and I’m pretty sure that Magnolia Electric Co. was the only nationally touring act to ever play the Lift with any regularity,” he enthusiastically notes. “I’d give both establishments six stars on Yelp if they didn’t stop me at five.”
Hailing from West Virginia Matheny wrote and completed his newest album ‘That Grand, Old Feeling’ before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, recording the LP with producer Bud Carroll at Trackside Studio in Point Pleasant, WV. Carroll joins the proceedings on guitar, with Adam L. Meisterhans (guitar), Clint Sutton (drums), Jeremy Batten (piano, organ), John R. Miller (bass, vocals), and J. Tom Hnatow (pedal steel) rounding out the band, and recent Grammy-winner Justin Francis mixed the final product. All of these fantastic players are fellow West Virginians and Matheny’s longtime friends.
‘That Grand Old Feeling’ is available 4th August from Hickman Holler/Thirty Tigers.
