MATT THE ELECTRICIAN: Made For Working

Matt the Electrician

Made For Working

© 2003 Matt Sever (678277053526)

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Quirky, Heartfelt Acoustic Pop with the earthy roots of Americana

tracks

1 Diaryland
2 Milo
3 These Boots
4 China Airline
5 Little Hands
6 Prison Bones
7 Lost
8 King of The Losers
9 Train
10 Jesse's Girl
11 Favorite One
12 Love on The Moon

notes

The Mostly True Bio of Matt the Electrician

Mussed hair and work clothes be damned, Matt Sever's been known to schlep directly to gigs disheveled from his real-life day-job: keeping people wired and lit. Yet the moniker is more than just a humorous takeoff on life's realities...

Born Matt the Electrician on a frosty San Francisco morn, Matt and his family soon moved to Oregon in search of culture, nice weather and vineyards. Once there, Matt spent much of his youth obsessed with Woody Guthrie, The Hollies and the soundtrack to Godspell. The Electrician's were a musical, yet thrifty family, so they found a swell garage-sale trumpet to encourage this musical interest.

The Electricians moved back to California in the early eighties. And while the trumpet was discarded, the expensive private lessons were not a complete waste, as it was here that Matt met and fell in love with the guitar.

Unfortunately, because of the elder Electrician's spiraling origami habit, money was not only extremely tight but intricately folded and beautifully hung all around the Electrician household, so Matt was limited to the only three chords his parents could afford. His dad assured him this was plenty, that kids in China only get one or two.

And strangely it all worked out, Matt headed to Austin, a serious music town, with aspirations to become a serious musician.

Mission accomplished. After years of a steadily built, devoted fan base, some would say that Sever's unassuming baby-faced slacker image and "nice guy" blue-collar charm belie a very complex and intoxicating energy that is equal parts gritty neo-folk, frenetic boyish pulse, and tangled life experience - all held cohesive by his deft guitar skills and liquid vocals reminiscent of a young Paul Simon wrapped around a Tom Waits heart. Some wouldn't be able to say that. Some would rather type it. Others might yodel.

Matt's first record, Baseball Song, was an impressive first showing by a young talent, capturing youthful emotions yet showing the direction of new found maturity. Landing him firmly on the map, No Depression called it "an impressive debut that makes Matt The Electrician a songwriter to watch."

Sever's second record Home. continued to radiate with the heat and grapple of youth: the unbridled eruptive green energy, the wry optimism, the epiphanies of burgeoning love and the booze-soaked nights and vinyl booth mornings of life on the road; a record The Austin Chronicle calls "an acoustically amusing postcard of life in Slacker Central."

Made For Working, Sever's new record, offers a slight departure from the real or imagined boundaries of home... to a place where love evolves and grows comfortable, where new families and priorities are built, and where life reduces to a concentrated clarity. Where people grow up.

Sever lives and works with his family in Austin, Texas.

reviews

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  • author: Christal Rose

    If you have a chance to see Matt play live, don't pass it up. You will be sorry - it's one of the most fantastic experiences I have had all year. Afterward, listening to this CD (and others), it brought back the warm, fuzzy feeling of what a blast I had at the show (at a tiny bar in Alaska). Every time I hear one of his songs, I am in a better mood. I am a fan for life! Long live MtE!

  • One of the top acoustic performances of the year...
    author: Scott Russell

    Live or played at home on your stereo, Matt the Electrician will blow your mind. This guy is good! Keep your eyes (and ears) on this rare talent. Residents of Austin: go see this guy in concert—he's unblievable!

  • Fantastic sound
    author: Caleb Fraser

    Great sound, phenomenal lyrics...a must have!

  • Best CD I've bought this year.
    author: Kevin

    There aren't enough words to describe how much I enjoy listening to this CD. Loved it so much, I bought another copy to give to my sister. From beginning to end, there isn't a bad track to be found. Wish Calgary was a little closer to Texas so I could see Matt play in person!

  • Matt's music puts me in a place I enjoy

  • Little Hands... awww!
    author: QuietSoul

    Love the lyrics, love the arrangement, love the voice. Found this via an interesting chain (www.wrybaby.com --> audiusa.com/a3 -- "Life As You Know It" movie by Kristina Robbins-Higgins). After watching Kristina's movie, I just had to get the music... and I am very glad I did. Thank you, Matt The Electrician!

  • A perfect CD: Every song enjoyable time and again
    author: Peter DeBetta

    A friend introduced me to MtE and after listening to it just once, I was hooked. This is one of the few CDs that I listen to straight through. As I said in the title of this review, it's a perfect CD, and I am very glad to have it as part of my music collection.

  • Finger snappin', and mood enhancin'
    author: Carrie

    I find the CD has really catchy feel good rythyms and lyrics, sultry yet spicy at times. Whistling is a lost art which this CD uniquely captures, along with banjo antics and -folky flows. Genuinely one of a kind!

  • MtE's easy manner works. It just works.
    author: Amplifier

    Matt Sever, who re-christened himself Matt the Electrician to explain his appearance when going straight to an Austin, Texas, gig from his day job, has an easy manner and a way with a song and an acoustic guitar on his third album, Made for Working. MTE exhibits David Wilcox's breezy sense of humor and Arlo Guthrie's sense of the absurd/cosmic with flashes of Jerry Jeff Walker and Loudon Wainwright III that clearly shows he knows his place in singer/songwriter history. Part of the fun of Made for Working is picking out the sly musical references that MTE casually drops into his songs. The ostensible title song, "These Boots," begins "These boots are made for workin' / That's just what they do / One of these days I'm gonna have to buy some new boots." In "King of the Losers," he whistles a bluesy "Whistle While You Work" and then tosses off a piece of Steve Miller's "The Joker" as a coda. Elsewhere, there's tap dancing, Dixieland banjo, some searing electric guitar, a singing saw and a solo acoustic spin on Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl." Somehow it all fits together. Matt the Electrician proves singer/songwriters can be funny without being clowns and thoughtful without being overwrought. -BRIAN BAKER

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