A word or two on Matt Elliott

As I seem to have been the only soul to have voted for Matt Elliott’s album this year (Farewell to all we know) I thought I might write a few words about the musician and how I ended up coming across him. In 2005 I found myself at a festival watching this (unknown to me) singer and guitarist. He was looping his instrument and voice, something that at that time I hadn’t come across on stage, and it was intense, really intense. Matt Elliott (for it was he) was show casing songs from his then current LP ‘Failing Songs’ an album that I picked up not long after. It’s a blend of (I guess) folk music styles (I would have said French but his press release suggests Balkan) but it was the lyrical content that really struck me (and stuck with me). It’s not a happy listen, seemingly the singer looks at life and existence through a lens of despair or perhaps resignation. I played the heck out of the album over the next year or so, and then for some reason I didn’t look for a follow up and I never heard » Continue Reading.