River of Tears dates 2020… We’re booking Canadian tour dates right now for the Spring. If you’d like to host Joel and I for a duo show, email me at mattepp@gmail.com Love Activism moving forward… When the world is burning, and some are starting wars and ignoring the urgent need to protect the Earth, we can begin to feel helpless and heartbroken. I invite you to counter those feelings with action. We can all do something. I’m working on getting a fierce #LoveActivism community going. Join here if you’re interested in growing it with me.
Oct 16 – Owen Sound, ON @ Heartwood Hall (Matt solo) – Tickets here Oct 26 – Essen, DE @ Stephanus Gemeindezentrum – Tickets here Oct 27 – Duisburg, DE @ Augustin House Concert Oct 30 – Göttingen, DE @ APEX Oct 31 – Hamburg, DE @ Sternel House Concert
Dec 11 (6-8pm) – Toronto, ON @ Cameron House front room (with band)
Nashville Fireflies – Watch here
New Video, first single from the coming collection! I just felt like getting something new out there today. 🙂
There are lots of songs and videos I’m sitting on, but why? Music and Love are all I have to share, why hold back?
I just got back from a ride to Nashville for Americanafest, and so Nashville Fireflies seemed like the appropriate song to share first. It first appeared on the limited edition Rubber & Chrome album, but I play it live so often, that I felt it needed to be available publicly. Joel Fashion and I recorded 10 songs on the April Full Moon, and we’re calling the collection River of Tears. It will be available on CD in Europe and at the above tour dates – in the meantime, I’ll release songs a video at a time, to give you some time with each one. Not sure when it all hits Spotify yet, but enjoy on YouTube.
Jen Doerksen shot and edited the video of us in these sessions at Private Ear Recording in Winnipeg, where our good friend John Paul Peters masterfully recorded and mixed the music. Thanks for reading and listening. See you soon!
“You Were Chosen To Be Here”, written and performed with Bomgiizhik (Isaac Murdoch) and Shannon Paul is available everywhere; the music video too. Have a look + listen!
Good morning everybody! In this time of more division than ever; in this era of abrupt climate change; in this day of deep underlying unease; my friends and I want to offer some art that is meant to reach and bridge from our hearts to yours. This piece above was created for you. We’re all in this together. Without love we have nothing. Without each other we have no one. We were chosen to be here, now, together! Have a listen.
This new and timely collaboration is written and performed with highly acclaimed Indigenous artist-activist and storyteller, Bomgiizhik (Isaac Murdoch), from Serpent River First Nation, and Shannon Paul – a powerful traditional singer from Winnipeg.
These mesmerizing artists have been working together with me on new music and art; This song will be the first step to kickstart a grassroots unity-seeking movement and in developing a collaborative show between them called, “The Heart is at the Centre; De naanaaweying teh”, which will begin traveling across Canada later this year. The title comes from the heart at the centre of Murdoch’s art, and at the centre of my songs.
I’ve been working hard for the past few years in the writing and making of this album. I collaborated with the right producer for it (Aaron Goldstein) and got world-class musicians to play with me on it. I feel deeply about it artistically and it feels like a debut for me. I can’t wait for you to hear it!
When you pre-order the album now on CD / Vinyl / Digital, you’ll be able to download 2 tracks instantly! They’re the opener and closer songs from the album. Such a tease.
When you support the album in a bigger way, not only do you get some exclusives, but you also encourage and mobilize this music to have even further reach. As an independent artist, I can’t get away from asking for your support; so if you are able, I will use it in the best way possible to get this record out and take this calling to be a songwriter and performer to the next level. Thank you!
Listen to one of the tunes, ‘In A Flash’, on YouTube now.
1. Runaway
2. Hit The Ground
3. The Bell
4. Mercy
5. North Country
6. Unnatural
7. Uncharted Waters
8. Good Lover
9. May I Have This Dance
10. In A Flash
About The Album
On Shadowlands, veteran troubadour Matt Epp embarks on a journey through the geographies of darkness within him, sending back transmissions of lush, haunted Americana that embrace the dualities of this human thing—love, light, and the absence of each. He traverses spiritual and physical worlds deftly, conjuring the twilight wilderness of his home with hazy, transcendental psychedelia (“North Country”), chasing muses on his road-worn Honda Shadow amidst incendiary roots rock (“Runaway”), floating through ghostly, glowing folk alongside mystical guides (“Uncharted Waters”), and raging against social and environmental injustice on the acerbic battle cry “Unnatural,” recalling Neil Young’s pointed activist anthems. Epp’s 10th album represents his first steps over the threshold in this odyssey, and its piano-led curtain closer, “In a Flash,” is a promise to continue fearlessly navigating the gathering tempests and crises of faith that define its world.
The corporeal helpers that brought Shadowlands to this plane—a rogues gallery of world-class tune-slingers—did so over fateful spring nights in the hills of Nashville, Tennessee at Dark Horse Recording. With Toronto pedal steel magician Aaron Goldstein at the producer’s helm, Epp’s award-winning songwriting is transformed, arriving with more powerful force than it ever has before, and blazing a new path for its author.
Recorded at Dark Horse Studio (Franklin TN)
Produced by Aaron Goldstein
Mixed by John Paul Peters, Private Ear (Winnipeg, MB)
Mastered by Gavin Lurssen, Lurssen Mastering (Los Angeles, CA)
CANADA SUMMER TOUR DATES
May 25 – Massie, ON @ Massie Hall
May 27 – Wakefield,QC @ Blacksheep
July 1 – Owen Sound, ON @ Kelso Amphitheatre; Canada Day headliner
July 13-15 – Courtenay, BC @ Vancouver Island Music Festival
July 19 – Vernon, BC @ Record City
July 20 – Kelowna, BC @ Sabine’s Salon
July 27-28 – Paris, ON @ Skylight Festival
Aug 3-5 – Lac Du Bonnet, MB @ Fire & Water Music Festival
Aug 10-12 – Ear Falls, ON @ Trout Forest Music Festival
Thank you, friends,
Love Matt
Hi friends everywhere, I’m really excited to share this new special piece of music with you today. Read a little bit about how it came to be, below. Next week I’ll start my tour of Eastern Canada with Christiana Martin, see some of you out there.
If you love the new song The Sound (feat. Faouzia), please do me a great kindness and share as widely as you can; Send to friends that might enjoy it, share on your social media, and even request it be played on your local radio. Let’s get this song to as many ears as possible!
Thank you / Merci / Miigwetch / Danke / Gracias / Tesekkurler!
About the song The Sound
While Matt Epp is on tour in Germany, he receives an email from his 18 month old daughter, who he has been writing to since she was a newborn. The email from her reads “What sound does a longing heart make?” In a hotel bathroom in Bielefeld, he tearfully writes the chorus of this song.
Fast forward a few months to the hot July sun beating down on the back of the Canadian prairies. Manitoba native Matt Epp is assigned as mentor to a group of talented young performers just days before he performs at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Among the participants in the program is Moroccan-born, Manitoba-based Faouzia Ouiyha, who has just turned sixteen years old. Faouzia (who performs under her first name) is a quickly rising star in the province. Perhaps unlikely kindred spirits, Epp and Ouiyha form a quick friendship, and before long they find that their differences lend themselves to a rich collaboration. Ouiyha picks up where Epp leaves off, and they finish the song together.
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