William Matheny

What’s my deal, you ask?

Oh, hi there! My name is William Matheny and I write songs, perform them and play a bunch of different instruments (more than five, less than ten). I guess you could say that would make me a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist although that seems like a weird thing to say about oneself.

Sometimes when I’m carrying a guitar case into a hotel or I’m at a gathering with people I’ve only recently met, someone will ask me what kind of music I play. In those moments, I’ll usually say “americana” because A) it’s a short answer and that means we can move onto other topics, B) no one wants my TED talk about the concepts of genre and marketing, and C) they were probably just asking to be polite and don’t actually care that much.

Truthfully, I would consider myself more of a fellow traveller to the Americana movement as opposed to an actual, card-carrying party member. I much prefer the term “rock & roll” because of its populist, egalitarian and culturally diverse connotations and I like that it’s a big umbrella that you can fit a whole lot of stuff under. Anyway, whatever you want to call it is probably fine with me, I just appreciate you listening.

If you’re familiar with what I do, you’ve probably seen me on a stage by myself or fronting my wonderful band. You also may have seen me playing bass for John R. Miller or playing whatever is needed at a given moment in The Paranoid Style.

I was born in West Virginia and I still live there, although I spend the majority of my time on tour or in a recording studio somewhere. Between all of the aforementioned ventures, I played about 150 shows across the United States and Canada last year. Some personal highlights of that would include opening tours for The Wallflowers, Lucero and American Aquarium. Had the privilege of playing music onstage at The Ryman Auditorium for a second time and at NPR’s Mountain Stage for what I think was the ninth time. Did some cool festivals too.

My most recent album That Grand, Old Feeling came out on my friend Tyler Childers’ Hickman Holler record label - it’s part of the Thirty Tigers family of brands. I’m pleased to say that it’s been well received. The feedback that means the most to me comes in the form of people telling me that they enjoy it or that certain songs have resonated with them in some way.