Matthew R. Sayles
"Clever songwriting alongside rearranged classics-- a throwback style that knows good, old-fashioned storytelling...yet is utterly unpretentious about modernity.”
--The Source, Bend, Oregon
Matthew R. Sayles is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and founder of Philville Records, an independent label he formed in 2000 in Marquette, Michigan.
Sayles has toured nationally and internationally, and has had the honor of performing with country, bluegrass, and western swing legends like Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Asleep at the Wheel, Larry Sparks, Doyle Lawson, the Duhks, Uncle Earl, Hot Club of Cowtown, members of Bob Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Review" and a long list of other highly talented regional and national roots music performers.
Sayles's solo performances bounce from up tempo Telecaster-picked roots country, early rock & roll, roadhouse blues, Americana ballads, and bluegrass, to north African-inspired instrumental pieces on five string banjo and south American-infused arrangements on the Andean ten-stringed Charango.
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An accomplished songwriter, story-teller, and performer with a deep interest in the history of American roots music, Sayles's live performances evoke a modern interpretation of the coffee house shows of the 1950s and 60s, while still keeping one foot grounded in the beer halls, honky-tonks, and night clubs of the recent past and present.
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Philville Records was located in Ventura, CA from 2009-2019, and is now based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Sayles continues to write, record, and produce, as well as perform with his latest project the Driftless Revelers, the Ventura based Ventucky String Band, and his California alt. country project the Detroit Sportsmen's Congress. He also performs solo and does session work with Eau Claire, Duluth, Marquette, Los Angeles, Ventura, Portland and Santa Barbara alt. country and roots music projects.
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