Matt Malone is a singer/songwriter born in the goldfields region of country Victoria. He has formed his musical vision out of the blues, country, folk and gospel traditions of the American, British and Australian past.
Malone’s commanding baritone and masterfully crafted songs have been compared to the archetypal Johnny Cash, African-American gospel preachers such as Blind Willie Johnson, poetic folk troubadours including Leonard Cohen and tenebrous lyrical princes Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan.
Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits (Henry Hugo, Anthony Cornish, Ash Jones, Maggie Williams, Ian Chaplin) are releasing their forthcoming LP - FOR THE TERM OF MY NATURAL LIFE through VRS Records (Vinyl / CD).
♰ These are songs of experience – warnings and acknowledgements of mistakes made, with a desire to build a Heaven in Hell’s despair ♰
PRESS:
"Ultimately (For The Term Of My Natural Life) signposts Malone’s redemption, and through the darkness a sense of resolute optimism emerges, for this life and beyond." - POST TO WIRE
“Crisp acoustic guitars jangle and crystalline electric guitars shimmer in the ether as Malone’s sonorous and resonant voice recounts tales of woe and hardship in a barbed-wire baritone that bleeds with pain and regret. His voice seems to emanate from the bottom of a whiskey glass and provides a soundtrack to an Hieronymus Bosch portraiture of despair.” - BACKSEAT MAFIA
“(For The Term Of My Natural Life) is a musing on destiny and the inescapability of certain circumstances in life, an Australian gothic take on faith and identity, and while the narrator seems resigned to his fate the refrain is repeated with a certain determination that suggests he may break free." - SUNSET COUNTRY MUSIC
"Matt Malone has a voice similar to Nick Cave & Tex Perkins, in a gothic-blues… outlaw country style" - COSMIC COWBOY BOB, 104.7FM
"Reminds me of something out of a great Clint Eastwood western - it’s cinematic" - LOUIS J, 3BBB
"The beautiful sound of Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits… it just hangs beautifully" - EAMON J, ANTIPODES RADIO
FB - https://www.facebook.com/mattmaloneandtheholyspirits
BC -https://mattmaloneandtheholyspirits.bandcamp.com/.../for...
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THE DEAD SALESMEN (DUO) featuring HAP HAYWARD & JUSTIN RYDA
Hap Hayward (vocals, lyrics) and Justin Ryda (guitar, music) began The Dead Salesmen as a duo in Ballarat in the late eighties, releasing a self-titled twelve song tape before becoming a full band with Patrick Bath on bass and Lenny Hyatt on drums.
The band would release two more albums ‘Jealousy’ and ‘Bluestoned’ before Julitha Ryan joined them for their final album ‘Amen’. Many eps and national tours and support slots from the likes of Ed Kuepper, Bob Geldof, The Whitlams, Archie Roach, Richard Clapton and Loudon Wainwright III took place.
The Dead Salesmen also enjoyed being part of a very exciting independent Melbourne music scene in the nineties and became familiar to such haunts as The Punters Club, The Espy and The Empress of India – all pubs specialising in and celebrating a very cool and eclectic musical ethos and attitude. The band called it quits in 2000 but returned sporadically throughout the following decade(s).
During Lockdowns and a good twenty years later, Hayward and Ryda started writing songs again in 2020, going under a new alias: ‘The Blue Lighters’ with an album entitled “Come To Flight” which was released on Bandcamp and Spotify with the help of Heart Of The Rat records. All songs had film clips created by local filmmakers and are available on YouTube. A new Blue Lighters single has just been released on Bandcamp called “Leave Tonight”.
FB - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063038208942
BC - https://thebluelighters.bandcamp.com/album/come-to-flight
PRE-SALE: $20
DOOR: $25 (If available)
Venue details
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Merri Creek Tavern
111 High Street Northcote, Victoria, Australia
- https://www.facebook.com/111HighStreet/