Musician of the Week

Musician of the Week
Matt Jones

NAMA winner Matt Jones is headed to Los Angeles next month to pursue his career. He will be playing his last show in NWA for a while this Saturday night at Froggy’s on Dickson Street.
Instruments: Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Day job: I’m a fulltime musician, meaning my “day” doesn’t start until early evening.
First performance: My first performance was here on Dickson at U.S. Pizza. It was close to 10 years ago and I was 15 at the time. My friend and I had worked up some Dave Matthews covers that we thought sounded great, of course it was most likely a very hard set to sit through for anyone in the audience.
Favorite performance: I’ve been blessed to have had the opportunity to play all over the country, but I still love any show I get to play here in Fayetteville. This is my home and when I get to play in front of my family, friends and peers it reminds me why I love doing this in the first place.
Type of music: This is always a strange question to me and I never quite know how to answer. I listen to so many styles of music and I try my best to incorporate all of them. The biggest influences in my music are blues, folk and pop.
Originals or covers? You can’t beat the opportunity to play your own music in front of people, though I do enjoy playing covers as well. I really enjoy covering songs in a different way than the original, my favorite being a version of “God Is A Dancer” by Benjamin Del Shreve.
Sounds like: All your favorite music rolled into one…hopefully.
Songwriting Muse: The fragility of life and the small moments that make it worth living.
Influences: Any and all musicians who play on Dickson Street, Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix, any Motown recording artist.
Accomplishments:  I once went an entire day without speaking.
What kind of crowd do you draw:  The best troublemakers in town.
Any albums: A very old EP that’s collecting dust though I’ve been working on a record for over two years now. It should be out before I die.
Back stage ritual: To simply tell the guys in the band that I love each one of them and to have a great time together.
Funniest or strangest thing that ever happened during a performance: I’d have to say winning a NAMA and the MC announcing my name while I was mid-pee.
Plans: Moving to Los Angeles in September.
Goals: To make this playing guitar thing a living.
New Projects: I’d like to invest more time into the Evening Of Soul project we did. It’s turned out to be something I’d like to perform again.

Upcoming shows and tours: August 30, Froggy’s. It’s the last show in Fayetteville for quite a while.
If you could open for anyone, who would it be? Benjamin Del Shreve…again.
Last CD purchased: “Either Side Of Midnight” – Jack McManus
Most played song/s on your I-Pod? “Trouble’s What Your In” – Fink, “27 Jennifers” – Mike Doughty, “Darwin” – Third Eye Blind
Web site: www.myspace.com/mattjones