WATCH NOW: ‘Way more relaxed’: Matt Walsh set to release ‘Straight Outta Dunn’
Matt Walsh poses in a promotional photo for his upcoming album, “Straight Outta Dunn,” which will be released on May 30.
Matt Walsh speaks during an interview outside his home in Statesville on Wednesday.
Matt Walsh poses for a photo outside his home in Statesville on Wednesday.
Matt Walsh poses in a promotional photo for his upcoming album, "Straight Outta Dunn," which will be released on May 30.
Matt Walsh poses in a promotional photo for his upcoming album, "Straight Outta Dunn," which will be released on May 30.
Matt Walsh doesn’t need to prove himself at this point in his career, his upcoming 11th album, “Straight Outta Dunn” is proof enough of that.
With more than 20 years of experience though, he said it wasn’t until recently that he realized he could take a step back from a constant schedule of shows and focus more on himself and other endeavors outside of his music.
“I just took a lot of time taking it easy to be honest,” Walsh said. “The whole with the shutdown was it taught me I didn’t have to play non-stop. That’s the mode I’d always been in, ever since I was a kid doing this, when I started doing this professionally when I was 24, 25. It was always saying yes to everything, even if you can’t do it, find a way to get through it and do it. I always had that attitude and hunger, and as a professional musician, my income depended on it. It’s like the day-to-day process of life: You really don’t see it happening because you’re doing it. Sometimes I was out four, or five nights a week, and I never just stopped and thought to myself, maybe you don’t have to play so much.
“I missed out on so many things, it’s a huge sacrifice obviously.”
He said that while making episodes of “The Friday Night Gamble” during the COVID-19 pandemic, it hit home how he enjoyed spending time just talking with his friends and fellow musicians, not just seeing them in passing while playing shows all over the country.
“I find I play less, but I do better financially than I ever have, and there’s nothing wrong saying no,” Walsh said. “I play out a lot less, but I’m a lot happier.”
As he pushes 46 years old, that’s also given him more time for friends, family, and for other artistic endeavors like Shiloh Saloon Stories, or anything else on his YouTube channel.
“I just don’t have anything else to prove, or bound by that. I was so busy proving myself as a young man I don’t think I got out of that,” Walsh said. “I enjoy my family, sitting on the porch. If I want to create something, I create it when I want to do it.”
But make no mistake, he still puts in the work when it comes to his music.
“Straight Outta Dunn” will be released May 30, but listeners can get a taste of it with the debut single, “Counting Sheep,” which already is available online for listening.
Counting Sheep
“Counting Sheep” is as close to a pop sound as you’ll hear from the guitarist that considers himself somewhere between blues, R&B, country, and rock ‘n’ roll.
“In my mind, it’s the best song I’ve ever written, I love everything about it,” Walsh said.
Walsh said he wasn’t sure how people would respond to a “funkier” sound from it, he was “pleasantly surprised” by the reception so far after releasing the single last week.
The sound of “Counting Sheep” might be as unique as the sense of humor behind the song.
Walsh isn’t restless when he is “Counting Sheep,” far from it. While the song was written and recorded well before a “social experiment” of his, it is hard not to hear the song and believe otherwise.
Last year after hearing a promotion for Paul McCartney’s show in Winston-Salem, the idea struck Walsh to see how people might respond to him claiming he would open for the legendary musician in a Facebook post.
“The song was already recorded, but I thought this might be a good way to build some backstory into it,” Walsh said.
While not everyone saw the humor in it, Walsh believes he made a point about how people often project themselves to be more than what they are, or at least more successful or happier in their public personas on social media.
Some of his own personas, as well as his other friends in comedy, were on display in the “Chet Hardwood’s Search For Brian Laundrie” videos posted on YouTube. His brand of humor is certainly his own — though he says he draws a lot of inspiration from Link Wray — and he’s OK with that.
While he doesn’t try to insert his own politics into his comedy or music, he said he hopes to make a point, including with “Counting Sheep.”
“It’s about the lack of critical thinking in our society,” Walsh said. “But I’m always entertaining, I don’t think people always realize that.”
While he may be a comedian, provocateur, or occasional self-described old man at times, his music is something he takes seriously, even if he doesn’t let one song or album determine how he sees himself after more than two decades as a musician.
‘Straight Outta Dunn’
Compared to his last album, the time Walsh had to write and record “Straight Outta Dunn” was slow and methodical as it was written ahead of being recorded last year and then set for release in May.
“Way more relaxed, way more relaxed,” Walsh said. “Not that I thought the other recordings were bad because of that, but it’s just a completely different atmosphere.”
With “Burnt Out Soul” it was a long wait as the pandemic turned the process into a 20-month endeavor. Recorded in 2018 soon after he had recorded “The Midnight Stain,” the plan was for it to be released in early spring of 2020. COVID-19 would delay everything, including that album, but it was finally released in September 2020.
Despite the wait, the writing and recording process for “Burnt Out Soul” was quick — just a few weeks — as Walsh had to strike quickly to take advantage of Columbia Studio A in Nashville as a producer was able to carve out time for Walsh. For “Straight Outta Dunn” however, it was a less hastened cycle for him to write and record it in a more refined and flexible fashion than its predecessor.
The recording of the album began at the Quonset Hut Studio in Nashville, but Walsh’s same producer friend, Michael Fohn, had also built his own studio — the Ark — recently and invited Walsh there so they could take the whole weekend to hone in on the details of each song.
While there was more time, Walsh said he and his fellow musicians on the album only rehearsed it once to maintain a more organic sound. He said they arrived in Nashville, quickly put down some of the most important parts of the songs, then focused the next two days on adding flourishes and layers to the album at a more leisurely pace.
“That allowed us for the next two days to do whatever we wanted to it, and to have fun,” Walsh said.
Walsh said with Fonz and his friends and acquittances in the industry in Nashville, they were also able to call up people to play particular parts such as the organ and accordion.
That also allowed for the guitar solo on “Counting Sheep” to be laid down after Walsh struggled to create a satisfactory one himself.
“I couldn’t break out of my guitar zone, I felt the song needed something else,” Walsh said. “It’s important to understand when to step back … I just wanted to find someone else’s flavor for a song or two.”
While he was encouraged and open to having Charlie Diaz play on it, the guitarist had his friends and family in town that weekend and was short on time. Despite that, it was eventually decided that the whole posse, girlfriend, mother, and Diaz’s bandmate would come to the studio while Diaz lent his talents to the song.
Walsh said while he always maintains creative control, not treating songs as his “babies” like some musicians allows him to be open to contributions from others and to experiment. He said as long as he keeps making music, there is always another chance if, in the end, he isn’t fully satisfied.
“I’ve never been the guy who tells musicians who play with me they have to play it this way, you have to do it this way,” Walsh said. “It’s my creative control, but I’m not obsessive about that.”
Walsh said it is an “amalgamation” of all the music he’s done, whether blues, R&B, rock, or even the touch of a pop sound as is the case with “Counting Sheep.”
“It’s the culmination of everything I’ve learned in the last 20 years as a serious musician,” Walsh said.
The album’s name comes from his childhood hero Link Wray, who was born in Dunn, and one of the songs is named that as well. Walsh said the album is the closest he’s had to a concept for an album.
“This totally goes along with the attitude of the album, not seeking approval,” Walsh said. “I’ve always just had that attitude, I’m just going to be me.”
“Straight Outta Dunn” comes out on May 30 and Walsh said an album release show is scheduled for June 2 at the Red Buffalo Brewing Co. in Statesville.
Follow Ben Gibson on Facebook and Twitter at @BenGibsonSRL
