club cafe

Unbridled joy springs eternal from Halfway Home by Morning. Recorded live off the floor in Nashville, Tennessee, celebrated songwriter Matt Andersen’s tenth album collects all the essential elements for a down-home ramble and shoots them through with enough electrifying energy to drive the rock ‘n’ roll faithful to simmer, shimmy, and shake. Over its lucky 13 tracks, he explores every facet of his sound—sweat-soaked soul, incendiary rhythm and blues, heartbroken folk, and gritty Americana—and binds them together with palpable heart, as the band leaves everything they’ve got on the sweet old hardwood of the Southern Ground studio, in the same spot that legends like Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, and Jerry Lee Lewis turned up the volume ‘til it couldn’t go up anymore.

Along with the infiltrating buzz of Music City putting its stamp on the record, the studio itself became like a second home for Matt and the band. He and bassist Mike Farrington would routinely kick back with a drink and just listen to the horn section reminisce about the players they’d shared the stage with, and the kitchen took on its typical all-important role as war room, the spot where meals brought the whole crew together to plot next steps. Sometimes it’s tension that shapes a record. But what Halfway Home by Morning offers is soul rejuvenation, looking outward at the anxious state of the world and offering a helping hand, or searching inward to clarify what really matters. And to make a record like that, with warmth and verve, you need to keep your comrades close and feelin’ right. “There really is nothing like listening back in the studio and everybody has the same smile on their face over what we’re hearing,” Matt says. “You can’t fake the vibe of musicians playing together, responding to the choices others are making in that moment.”

Of course, fake vibes were never a threat to Matt. The native New Brunswicker has proven time and time again, on stages everywhere from clubs to theatres, that he’s the genuine article. And Halfway Home by Morning is as honest and compromise free as anything he’s ever done. It stands apart, though, injected with that feelgood swagger that comes from everyone making a racket in the same room. “What Would Your Mama Say?” opens things up on with a slithering groove, introducing us to the velvet smooth backing vocals of The McCrary Sisters. Amy Helm joins the party to slow burn the place down on “Something to Lose,” a righteously tender duet that explores the long, scarred, and loving history of a relationship. “Gasoline” blazes appropriately with horn blasts and tambourine shuffle, as Matt urges all good people of the world: “Let’s start living and forgiving like we’re running out of time.” The acoustic bounce of “Long Rider” belies its road dog lament, pumping ragged soul like they’ve got just enough in the tank to get home. “Been My Last” is a devotional for the ages, with pedal steel sweeping in to burst your heart. And things finish on a relatively sparse, but overwhelmingly poignant note: “Quarter on the Ground (A Song For Uncle Joe)” recalls a conversation between Matt’s mother and uncle, as the latter wishes he could hear Joe’s voice over the phone just one more time.

It should come as no surprise that such a commanding performer, set loose on tape, has built a record that’ll make you dance uncontrollably, weep unashamedly, and fill up any dark spots in your soul with a blast of sonic light. Nearly two decades into his career, still armed with his signature room-shaking, heart-quaking voice, Matt Andersen can’t fail. Halfway Home by Morning is the sound of an artist doing what he was born to do—laying his soul bare using the music that can’t help but run through him. And doing it with more jubilation than he ever has before.



About Matt Andersen

A powerhouse performer with a giant, soul-filled voice and commanding stage presence, Matt Andersen has built a formidable following the old-fashioned way: touring worldwide and letting his stunned audiences and new devotees spread the good word of his righteous tunes all over. And the world has indeed woken up and discovered him, helping him amass over 18 million views on YouTube. In addition to headlining major festivals, clubs and theatres throughout North America, Europe and Australia, he has shared the stage and toured with Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy, Greg Allman, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Randy Bachman, Little Feat, Jonny Lang, Serena Ryder, and more. Andersen nabbed the 2013 and 2016 European Blues Award for Best Solo/Acoustic Act, three Maple Blues Awards in 2012, and was the first ever Canadian to take home top honours in the solo/duo category at the 2010 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Since the release of Weightless in early 2014, Andersen has received a JUNO nomination for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year, a CIMA Road Gold award, and six Maple Blues Awards for Male Vocalist of the Year.

For over 30 years, Amy Ray has been renowned as one half of the Grammy-award winning folk duo Indigo Girls. She is also a community activist and has had an indie label, Daemon Records since 1989. With her debut solo album, Stag (2001), Ray turned in her acoustic for an electric and delivered a critically acclaimed album that showed her love of punk and rock. Since then, she has released five more solo rock albums; Prom, Didn’t It Feel Kinder, Live from Knoxville, Lung of Love, and MVP Live. Her first foray into country music came with her traditional country / Americana release, Goodnight Tender in 2014. She followed up with the release, The Tender Hour in 2015, a live recording of her country and rock exploits from The Triple Door, in Seattle as well as Indigo Girls studio album, One Lost Day. Indigo Girls Live with the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra is being released June 8th 2018, and they will be recording a new album in January of 2019 in the U.K.

Amy Ray and her band’s new country album, Holler will be released on September, 28th 2018. It was recorded live to tape at her mainstay Echo Mountain Studio in Asheville, NC, with the added power and swagger of horns and strings that harken back to the country music of the late 60’s. Holler features special guests: Alison Brown on banjo, Kofi Burbridge on keys, Derek Trucks on guitar, Vince Gill, Brandi Carlile, The Wood Brothers, Justin Vernon, Lucy Wainwright Roche and Phil Cook on harmonies. Amy and her band will be hitting the road throughout the Fall of 2018 and beyond.

DAVINA SOWERS AND THE VAGABONDS have created a stir on the national music scene with their high-energy live shows, level A musicianship, sharp-dressed professionalism, and Sowers’ commanding stage presence. With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band is converting audiences one show at a time, from Vancouver to Miami and across Europe. In 2011 Davina released her first full length, all original album Black Cloud . It was named one of the 10 best releases of the year by the Minneapolis Star & Tribune and awarded 4 ½ stars from Downbeat Magazine. Their next release in 2014, Sunshine, hit number 13 in the Billboard Blues Chart and led them to landing a performance on the hit BBC2 show, Later with Jools Holland.

DATV’s shows are filled with New Orleans charm, Memphis soul swagger, dark theatrical moments that evoke Kurt Weill, and tender gospel passages. Davina’s voice and stage presence defy category in a different way. Davina has been compared to Etta James, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday and Betty Boop, but comparisons don’t suffice: Sowers is a true original.

Bringing you 100 years of American music and Davina’s originals, which lend themselves to the American Songbook, the band brings edgy nostalgia to older generations and fresh new music to younger ears. This rollicking quintet is held together by Sowers’ keyboard playing, with acoustic bass, drums, and a spicy trumpet and trombone horn section. The group’s focused, clean sound and emphasis on acoustic instruments is novel to both blues and jazz worlds, and sets the show closer to New Orleans than to Chicago. This has set the Vagabonds apart at festivals in Thunder Bay, Ontario; Sighisoara, Romania; Sierre, Switzerland; Kemi, Finland; the 2012 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival ( in 2014 was asked back to play their main stage in 2014, Vache de Blues in France, and North Sea Jazz Festival. Catch this one-of-a-kind live show while they are in town!

Even though Roomful of Blues’ lineup has changed over the years, the band has always been one of the tightest, most joyful blues ensembles in the world. Currently an eight-piece unit led by guitarist Chris Vachon, the band has never sounded fresher or stronger. In 2010, singer Phil Pemberton took over the vocal duties, bringing his sweet and soulful vocals and adding another bright new dimension to the jazzy, jump-blues musical roots. Their winning combination of jump, swing, blues, R&B and soul remains their calling card, as does their ability to fill the dance floor. Along with newer members, bassist John Turner, trumpeter Doug Woolverton, drummer Chris Rivelli, and keyboardist Rusty Scott, and longtime members baritone and tenor saxophonist Mark Earley, tenor and alto saxophonist Rich Lataille , Roomful keeps on rockin’ in 2015.

Roomful of Blues, according to DownBeat magazine, “are in a class by themselves.” With their masterful combination of jumping, horn-heavy, hard-edged blues and R&B, it’s no wonder why the great Count Basie called them “the hottest blues band I’ve ever heard.” Since 1967, the group’s deeply rooted blend of swing, rock ‘n’ roll, jump, blues and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and a slew of other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards.

With a non-stop performance schedule for over 45 years, Roomful of Blues has earned critical, popular and radio success and a legion of fans around the globe. including the prestigious DownBeat International Critics Poll for “Best Blues Band”.

Danny Gochnour and his band have a unique style firmly rooted in Americana with heartfelt songs about small town America, Unemployment, Restlessness and Mortality. With the wide ranging talents of his band they seamlessly touch on various genres including Rock, Bluegrass and Country to the Smooth Jazz take on the Eagles cover "I Can't Tell You Why". Danny's writing is most often compared to that of Tom Petty with the vocal musings of Joe Walsh.

Danny Gochnour-Guitar, Vocals. As lead guitarist for Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers since 2006, Danny has recorded 5 CDs including the critically acclaimed 2018 Release "More Yesterdays Than Tomorrows" which features Bruce Springsteen on the politically charged song "Love Conquers Hate". In 2018 Danny stepped out front and released his first solo recording the Despair of Summer. Bob Leggett, the LA Music Critic stated, "we haven't been this excited about a new release since the first time we heard Tom Petty."

Joe Munroe- Keyboards, Vocals. Joe Produced, Engineered, played Keyboards, Bass, Drums, and did the background vocals on The Despair of Summer. Joe has been a staple on the Pittsburgh Music Scene for over 20 years and has performed with Patti LaBelle, Rick Derringer, Roger McQuinn, Davy Jones and countless others as a session keyboardist for the WQED Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop Series. Joe is proprietor of Studio Joe, a studio he runs out of his home in Monaca, PA.

Mark Pollera- Drums, Percussion. Since making his way here from Atlanta, Georgia where he worked as studio and gigging drummer playing and recording with artists such as the Steve Winwood Band, members of Widespread Panic, Sea Level and the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Mark quickly made a name for himself on the local music scene working with Danny and Joe in the Shari Richards Band and most recently as a member of Dan Bubian and the Delta Struts.

Dave Molter-Bass, Vocals. Dave came on the scene in 1970 playing bass with BlueByrd and released "I Hear You Knocking" on Buddah Records. In 1973 while in a favorite local band Pyewhacket, he released "Boogie Boogie Boogie" on Western World Records. He keeps busy playing with several local acts including Bill Toms and Hard Rain, Johnny Halo and The Angels, and Paul Martino's Allstar Band.

Steve Weiss-Violin. Steve has an extensive career playing Viola and Violin through the US and Europe. He has collaborated with musicians from the Dallas, Charleston and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Houston Grand Opera and international artists Sarah Brightman, Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Idina Menzel,
Evanescence, Michael W. Smith, the Trans Siberian Orchestra and many others. He is a founding member of the
nationally recognized Ferrum String Quartet which performs throughout the country. Currently he is Violinist
for the Wheeling Symphony Orcherstra, the Butler County Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Opera and the CLO, Resonance Works Pittsbugh, the South Florida Symphony, and the Opera Project Columbus.

Singer/Songwriter Hunty Lytes returns to Pittsburgh, PA at Club Café for another evening of music. Lytes will be accompanied by a full band of musicians, which will add to the experience of the live show.

For almost a decade, Hunty Lytes has been writing music that is easily relatable to the listeners. He uses music and the art of songwriting to try and understand the current times, the future, and the past.

Hunty's biggest influences in music are the Grateful Dead, Paul Simon, Elton John, Jackson Browne, and Tom Petty just to name a few. He uses those influences in his own works and also tries to build off of them to invent some sort of new sound.

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Hunty Lytes has released five total projects, all of which are very unique in their own right. He writes about his own personal live and the lives of the people he views in his community and around the world.

Blood is thicker than water and there’s nothing like family creating music together to prove it. With contrasting blood-harmonies and left-handed/right-handed guitar playing, singer-songwriter duo The Talbott Brothers combine rock, blues and pop with honest storytelling.

Nick and Tyler were born and raised in Imperial, a small town in Southwestern Nebraska, just a stone’s throw from the Colorado border. They began writing and performing together before relocating to their mother’s birthplace of Portland, Oregon. Tyler, the youngest (lead vocals, baritone guitar, harmonica) and Nick, the oldest (backing vocals, lead guitar) discovered their love of music after digging their dad’s old dreadnaught guitar out of the basement and teaching themselves to play along to Johnny Cash, Bob Seger and the Beatles on vinyl.

Following the release of 2017’s GRAY, they found themselves in front of sold out crowds in the US and sharing the stage with ZZ Ward, Johnnyswim and AJR. Ear to the Ground Music dubbed the record as one of the ‘Top 5 Albums of the Year’ stating it as, “equal parts optimistic and captivating, inspiring and hopeful.” Through rigorous touring and over half a million streams on Spotify, they continue to build a strong and loyal fanbase wherever they go.

Ask anyone about the new generation of social justice music-makers and they'll mention either Heather Mae or Crys Matthews. Mae, a powerhouse performer and earthshaking vocalist, has turned her personal struggle with mental health and body image into an empowering message of self-love, a universal light force that shines for every audience member. Matthews is a powerful lyricist whose songs of compassionate dissent reflect her lived experience as what she lightheartedly calls "the poster-child for intersectionality". These two singer-songwriters have joined forces with JJ Jones (Girlyman) and Joe Stevens (Coyote Grace) for The Singing OUT Tour.

Kind music for kind people. Kind Country is a Minneapolis based band that plays American standards as well as their own brand of Cosmic American music. Since their formation in 2012, the band has focused on creating live performances with high levels of improvisation and energy gathering with a goal of creating a moment of musical bliss that can be shared by audience members and band alike.

Kind Country released their debut self titled album “Kind Country” in the fall of 2013. Since then they have been bringing their music on the road playing live performances at theaters, bars, auditoriums, festivals, and everywhere in between all throughout the United States. The band released their second independently released full length album, Hwy 7, in the fall of 2015. Produced by Ryan Young of Trampled by Turtles, Hwy 7, thrust the band further into a regional spotlight. The guys quickly followed up with a 5 track studio EP, Mountains, which was released in the spring of 2017. The band has no plans of stopping and will be releasing new material on a regular basis for the foreseeable future.

"Snagging the last spot and rounding out our not-very-extensive list is Kind Country, the Minneapolis-based jamgrass band forged in 2012. Originally started as a four-piece string band, the band expanded into six-member ensemble featuring Mitch Johnson (guitar), Brandon Johnson (guitar), Max Graham (mandolin), Joe Sheehan (bass), Chris Forsberg (violin), and Chris Wittrock (drums). These guys have something special going on, with the addition of drums allowing the group to go deeper in exploring how bluegrass can morph and intersect with other genres and giving them the freedom to create a sound that is truly their own. However, they still stay true to their string-band origins and bluegrass roots, with their energetic playing and the talent among the six players more-or-less guaranteeing a foot-stompin’ good time."- Ming Lee Newcomb, Live for Live Music. From article Five Up and Coming Bluegrass Bands Poised to Take Over the Scene.