Matt Novak
Ten Valley
© 2004 Matt Novak (783707015606)
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Matt Novak's debut solo album "Ten Valley" brings some of the American Pacific Northwest's finest musicians together in a sparing, delicate, and often beautiful way, creating one mellow, melodic, and beautifully melancholy song after another.
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Matt Novak's late 2004 debut, Ten Valley, firmly places him in the ranks of contemporary American singer/songwriters. The whole album is a profound and unassuming gem among the all-too-often hasty of world of modern-day music releases. The release of Ten Valley is the culmination of two years of songwriting, and another year of recording. The final result is an album that proves the careful attention paid to every aspect of each song, never really leaving the listener, but unraveling him/her to the very core of love found and lost, quests of the spirit, parental abuse, homelessness, homecomings, the listless, jailbound, and the broken-hearted. Matt's songs are aptly enriched by the harmonies of Kati Claborn, as well as supported by the stellar dobro playing of Seattle's Mike Grigoni, the bass of Robert "Goldtooth" Ray, one of the Northwest's finest fiddlers Howie Meltzer, Dave Maguire on mandolin, and Laura Smith on the clawhammer banjo. Each song is delicately arranged and enriched by sparse instrumental combinations just full enough to support Matt's emotive heartfelt voice.
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Outstanding debut album from Matt Novak!
author: Victory ReviewOutstanding debut album from Matt Novak! With a sound and subject matter slotting in somewhere between John Prine and Louden Wainwright III, Novak should find appreciative fans everywhere. Novak's edge is in his spare arrangements - he's singing honestly and openly over just a few restrained instruments. No howling, no mewling, no affected weariness, just the startlingly clear observations of a man who knows love, friendship, labor, the road, and the weird way our plentiful times can leave folks hungering for something else.
Man, this is good stuff!
author: D. WoodsMan, this is good stuff! Haunting and melancholy without being saccharin... very tasteful. I'm impressed. There are some excellent singles here, and the album as a whole is pure joy to listen to.
Like a cup of warm tea with a shot of brandy in it by the fire, it doesn't get m
author: R. MemeLike a cup of warm tea with a shot of brandy in it by the fire, it doesn't get much better than this. Well mixed, well recorded, nice balanced frequency response, technically near perfect. I am left nearly speechless by the quality of the tunes and the music. Matt successfully mined the mother lode of the American myth, brought it back, and managed to diffuse it with the soul of the Pacific Northwest, though it could've come from Nashville or North Carolina. Well enough tripping over myself, I love it. I was instantly drawn in.