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Get Out Magazine - Phoenix, AZMatthew Reveles releases a one-man gem of a CD
by Chris Hansen Orf
August 6, 2008
It isn’t often a musician these days drops Leon Redbone into a conversation, but Tempe-based singer-songwriter Matthew Reveles lists the retro Tin Pan Alley singer-guitarist as an influence on his outstanding new CD, “We’ll Meet Halfway.”
Raised on the west side in Glendale (which he jokingly calls “the underage consumption and teen pregnancy capital of the state”), Reveles also has been deeply influenced by Valley bands he saw growing up.
“The stuff that’s stuck with me has been stuff like the Grateful Dead, Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, Gram Parsons in any incarnation and definitely bands like the Meat Puppets, Gin Blossoms, Grievous Angel — any of those mid-’90s Arizona bands from when I was a punk kid.”
It wasn’t long before Reveles, who was raised in a musical family with a drummer father (“He was the reason I started playing music,” Reveles says. “He’s one of the best drummers I know.”) and guitarist mother, began plying his trade in the same Valley clubs, such as the Rhythm Room, Modified Arts and the Yucca Tap Room, in which he’d previously hung out.
While Reveles has played with backing bands, he accompanies himself with an acoustic guitar.
“I was kind of, for lack of a better word, 'forced’ into singer-songwriter status due to not being able to find other musicians on the same wavelength,” Reveles explains. “While I enjoy the solitude sometimes, and the ability to write without criticism, I still like having other brains to bounce ideas off of.
“But I do have to admit,” Reveles adds, “that I often get to the point where I am happy to be able to take the stage solo, just me and a harmonica and guitar, and a glass of whiskey.”
A multi-instrumentalist — the liner notes on “We’ll Meet Halfway” have him playing all of the instruments himself, from drums to guitar to lap steel to clarinet — Reveles says the recording process took the better part of a year, during which time he lived at all-acoustic Tempe venue the Peace Tree House, where Reveles recorded the disc with engineer Marc Pedraza.
“The sessions were worked around my (work) schedule, so they never started before 1 or 2 a.m., sometimes going until 7 or 8 in the morning, leading to celebratory drinks at the Yucca (Tap Room), which opens at 6 a.m.,” Reveles says. “I would get off work, record, sleep, go back to work.
“It was fun and grueling at the same time,” Reveles adds. “I think the easiest parts to record were the ones I had originally planned on doing myself, the guitars and vocals. Most of it was a pretty smooth process — I think the majority of what you hear on the album was done in one or two takes.”
From the bluesy opener “Give It a Try” to the Dylan-styled country stomp of “Danny Boy,” the Redbone-influenced ragtime guitar instrumental “Whiskey Bar Guitar” and the beautiful vocal harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel-esque “The New One for Reals,” “We’ll Meet Halfway” is a tour de force of some of the finest music the Americana genre has to offer.
“I’m actually already writing songs for a second album,” Reveles says of his plans. “Some of the songs on 'We’ll Meet Halfway’ I’ve been playing for so long, and listening to them over and over in the studio has encouraged me to come up with some new tunes. (My backing band and I) are working on making ourselves road-ready, individually as musicians and as a band.
“And we’re also working on a clothing line to rival J. Lo.’s,” Reveles laughs.
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