Matt Park/Sam Outlaw

[Nick Bidmade]

I took up Matt Park’s recent invitation (Who is Playing Where) to see him playing with Sam Outlaw on Sunday 4 Feb in Newcastle.
Now, I’d heard the name, Sam Outlaw, but knew nothing about him. With such a contrived name, he would probably turn out to be a bus driver from Grimsby! But no… who knew?
The real deal (as I’m sure many of you already know) is Sam Morgan (stage name Outlaw, which is his mother’s maiden name) is a singer/songwriter who seems now to be carrying the future of country music that isn’t good ol’ boys, girls, beer, trucks and heavy metal guitar solos.
Sam is from Los Angeles. His favourite singer, he confesses, is Don Williams, and there’s a clear connection when you hear his phrasing and baritone voice. But, for me, there was a quite strong recollection of Dwight Yoakam, especially that ‘throaty’ sound. Think Bakersfield, rather than Austin or Nashville.
Sam’s songs are well written, tuneful and have good ‘hooks’ – both in prose and musically.
The ‘band’ is a trio – Sam, on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Holly on harmony vocals and acoustic guitar (lending inevitable, but not necessarily comparable associations with Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris) and, finally, Matt on Fender Stratocaster and, mainly, Sho-Bud LDG pedal steel.
There are many regulars on the British Steelies forum who know of Matt’s stellar progress as a pedal steel guitarist from video and other posts, and he certainly does seem to have all the chops. But, more than that, Matt is a consummate musician, meaning that his playing is always sympathetic to the overall sound, feel and sentiment of the song in question. So, atmospherics and harmonics, but also some really solid steel breaks and phrases. As your intrepid reporter, I didn’t think to take with me a camera, pen or paper, so I can’t remember song titles, but Matt did a couple of great intros (a bit Tom Brumley to my ears) and several cracking solos, including one that I think Lloyd Green would have been happy to put his name to.
Ken Byng recently posted a list of great English pedal steel players (with appropriate deference to the high quality of steelers in Scotland, Ireland and Wales) and it can’t be too long before Matt’s name is added to that roll-call.
Matt’s electric guitar playing was also of a really high standard, including playing on the song ‘Angelinos’, which, on record, has Ry Cooder on electric guitar. Matt took it in his stride.
The gig finished at 10.30 and, despite audience clamour for an encore, the house clearly had a policy that things stopped at 10.30. Sam and Holly came out into the crowd and played encores surrounded by fans, just two voices and two acoustic guitars. A really great evening of music.
If Sam Outlaw tours again (and I’m sure he will, as he seems to have a good following here in Britain) and especially if Matt plays with him, I would strongly recommend you go and see the show. A brilliant evening.

[Ken Byng]

Matt came to my place for a lesson a while back. He has a superb ear and is very rapid at picking stuff up. He just needs a bit of time under his belt and he will get there - no problem.

[hickenjr]

Personally I've seen a lot of videos of Matt playing and I think he is brilliant. An inspiration to me as a younger player.

The first time I saw Sam Outlaw was about 2-3 years ago. On the off chance he was in my YouTube suggested and I clicked onto it. I was amazed with what I saw on some kind of American morning news show. A great story about him was presented before hand and then some amazing music kicked off. I've been hooked every since. He will be up there with the Kacey Musgraves kind of stature in a couple of years.

[Danny Mitchell]

What a great review Nick Thanks for taking the trouble.
I became a fan of Matt's playing when I saw this