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Anderson back in Bow Valley

The big man with the big voice and thundering guitar will be back in the Bow Valley, July 22 to play The Banff Centre’s Shaw Amphitheatre.
Matt Andersen
Matt Andersen

The big man with the big voice and thundering guitar will be back in the Bow Valley, July 22 to play The Banff Centre’s Shaw Amphitheatre.

Matt Andersen, a hard-working, hard-touring Maritime bluesman, is a winner of the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Memphis and in 2011 won Maple Blues Awards for Entertainer of the Year and Acoustic Act of the Year and was nominated for four East Coast Music Association awards.

Andersen’s musical household got him interested playing early on and by junior high he was in the school band, first on tuba and later on trumpet. He took up guitar at 14, and before long was playing classic rock and top 40 covers in pub bands while he studied studio engineering. Things changed dramatically, however, when he discovered the blues.

“Through Eric Clapton I got into B.B. King, which led me to the Chicago electric stuff and eventually back to the Mississippi Delta guys,” he said. “What really hit me most about the blues was its total honesty.”

Matt began to build his name on the Canadian circuit, his imposing voice and slashing slide guitar making a lasting impression on audiences. He debuted with 2002’s One Size Never Fits, and followed with the likewise-warmly received Solo at Sessions (2004) and Live at Liberty House (2005).

He signed with Busted Flat Records for a string of exalted albums: 2007’s Second Time Around, 2008’s Something in Between, and 2009’s Piggyback (a duo set with harmonica king Mike Stevens) and Live at the Phoenix Theatre.

Andersen’s newest album, Coal Mining Blues, was produced by Colin Linden (who co-wrote and plays on several tunes) and recorded at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York. There’s the self-explanatory “Work Hard for the Luxury,” and the title track, which rings true in mining communities from Cape Breton to Sheffield and West Virginia. But not all of Coal Mining Blues is about hard work, as rollicking up-tempo cuts like “Lay it on the Line” and “Fired Up” bear out.

Gates open at 5:30 p.m., opening band at 6:30 p.m. and Andersen takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Tickets at the box office, 1-800-413-8368 or 403-762-6301.


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