“‘Twas a night before Christmas. . .” In fact, it was. A cold, starry night in eastern Iowa, ten days before Christmas, complete with little snowflakes dancing in the air and Moscow mules in front of 80% of the people who had come to Moco Game Room to listen to Matt Woods and his band play some blues. I was luckier, though: I also got to listen to him talk about blues, life, and songwriting.

Woods started playing guitar when he was in his 20s, and it was out of general curiosity toward the instrument, at first. However, in a few months, he happened to hear a recording of Son House, and it “flipped the switch,” determining what exactly he wanted to do with that guitar for the rest of his life. Woods dived head first into the Mississippi delta blues, gradually drifting in the direction of urban electric style blues. He has been drawing his inspiration from both nationally and locally known blues singers and songwriters: Muddy Waters, R. L. Bronside, Robert Johnson, Fred McDowell, Bo Ramsey, Greg Brown, Joe Price are all among those whose work has lent a thread to the quilt of Matt’s creativity. “As a musician, you try to draw from a lot of different places and create your own path;” the most recent footprint Woods made on his path is his album, Tired and Dirty.

Tired and Dirty is not a cute phrase of a city boy to keep up the illusion of authenticity. For Woods, it is real life - agronomist and farmer by day, he literally keeps things down to earth, and that includes his music. Matt’s pragmatic personality and science-oriented mind found their way into the forms in which his creative side is manifested. His lyrics are simple, straightforward, and feel almost spontaneous: in contrast with the conventional songwriting approach, he never writes them down. Woods lets the music come first and then tries on words until he finds those that fit organically and fuse right into the tune. “I come up with the idea, and I play it over and over again until I remember the words. If they stick, they are ending up on an album; if they disappear, they disappear. I probably lost more songs than I ever recorded.”

Speaking of recording, besides Tired and Dirty, Woods has released four other independent studio albums - impressive productivity for a guy who “just wanted to play guitar” and began to write his own songs “to feed this guitar habit.” His work has been warmly received by critics, got a fair amount of radio airtime, and caught attention of the Blues Foundation, as well as multiple blues music publications. Matt Woods is a fantastic guitarist; his virtuoso slides and imaginative improvisations turn any simple blues “square” into a kaleidoscope of living, breathing, colorful musical passages. His solos are a rare treat, and his live performances are unforgettable.

Roots music has always been passed on from person to person, generation to generation, so traditional blues material is an important part of the shows Matt plays live, besides his originals. Since 2018, he has been joined onstage by Dwight Dario on drums and Erich Gaukel on bass. If you like your music raw, honest, and brilliantly performed, do yourself a favor and give Matt Woods and his band a good listen.

Discover Matt’s full bio, albums and show info at http://www.mattwoodsmusic.com/

Listen to select tracks at https://soundcloud.com/matt-woods-music/sets or take a look at some live show videos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattwoodsbluesmusic/