Matthew Perryman Jones - Swallow the Sea ie. Matthew Rocks again!

Matthew Perryman Jones, one of the first people I met in the music industry when I moved to Nashville, has come out with his 3rd full length album.

After a year in Nashville, many struggles and horrible experiences, I had gone home to TX with a heavy heart. My good friend Kris put on this amazing record called Nowhere Else but Here and I was blown away. Then he said that I reminded him of this artist. Not sure how I was like a man, I asked him to clarify. He said it was the poetry and the stage presence. I was flattered because this guy was amazing. I read the album cover and realized that he lived in Nashville, and so, took a chance and emailed him.

Kindly, he responded and invited me out to meet a group of people for a beer. Being a good little Christian from TX, I balked. Beer drinking Christians? Oh, I was so young. I met the group and soon became part of a crowd that would go on to become some of Nashville's premier music makers, soul spillers and poets. You may not know their names, but you should. Or you have heard their work and never known it was them. Here's a few of them, which you should listen to, embrace and support:

Mandy Mann
Andy Osenga
Katy Bowser
There are more, but this post is about Matthew P.J.

For a long time, he took a break from music (at least partially from on the road and on the stage, although I hear he still rocked the worship at Midtown!) and then, with the grassroots support of many people, he released his second full length album Throwing Punches in the Dark - an independent record produced by Neilson Hubbard. An amazing record and on permanent rotation at my house.
Now comes the release of his third full length album called Swallow the Sea. Sure to be another huge success. It came out this week to much press. Written up here in the Tennessean. You can stream the whole album from the website: www.breakingoutthewindows.com Some are songs I have heard Matthew sing a hundred times (Feels like letting go) and others are as new to the world as is his little baby girl (A Song for Canaan). Without a clue feels like a song I've heard a thousand times in my heart but didn't have the words or the tune to sing it. It resonates. It calls. As does each song that spills out from this newest offering. Save You is the unrequited rock star's background music. It got a few slots on TV shows (I had to look this up, since we don't have TV) Kyle XY and Private Practice.
All in all, the album is beautiful and you must, no I insist, go out and get this album, attend his concerts and support this incredible musician.

Matthew has always been great about not being that lone rocker, gutting it out on his own. He has played with other musicians all around town, been part of alliances of musicians to support each other, and most of all, been entirely personable and kind. In the past it has been easy for me to envy the joy that my friends have when good things happen for them. A kind friend set me straight about that several years ago and I realized that it was a crappy place to live. Now I can laugh with him as wonderful things happen for his music. Growing up is hard, but good.

But enough about me! Here are some more places to listen to his stuff, including a live interview on the coolest radio station in Nashville:

Interview on music business radio's website, broadcast live on Lighting 100. Google it and enjoy!
Ten out of TN - an incredible collection of music and musicians who fly under the Nashville Music scene radar, including Trent Dabbs who's brain child this project is, Katie Herzig, and many more incredible musicians.