Petaluma Argus-Courier Article
October 1, 2003

Keeping American roots music alive
Jeff Mattison's edgy folk music and alt-country sound evolves on his
second CD, Backroads Heart Attack

By CHRIS SAMSON
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

For every singer who has a major record deal and gets extensive airplay, there are hundreds of other talented but undiscovered musicians with self-produced CDs.

Petaluma singer-songwriter Jeff Mattison, who released his second CD, Backroads Heart Attack, earlier this summer on his Madboy music label, would like to get his music out to a wider audience, but he understands that good, heartfelt music doesn't necessarily translate to commercial success.

"A lot of people who I have a lot of respect for didn't sell a lot of records in their time," he said. "I'm conscious of being part of something larger than myself. I'm trying to do my part to keep American roots music alive and evolving in some way."

Mattison grew up in the Bay Area and has lived in Northern California most of his life, but his music has echoes of other places he's spent time: the South, Midwest and abroad.

His songs are rooted in American folk, country and bluegrass. "It's a little edgy," he said. "It's not really happy folk music. It's the other kind of folk music I find more interesting as a listener and writer."

Backroads Heart Attack represents an evolution from Mattison's 1998 debut CD, Moonshine Rain, an acoustic guitar-based album with a contemporary folk sound. The new CD, featuring his electric band the Wayward Angels, is a mix of his original alt-country rock, electric folk blues and acoustic songs.

Backroads Heart Attack has been getting airplay on Bill Bowker's "Americana" radio show that airs on KRSH Saturdays from 8 to 10 a.m. and Wednesdays from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Mattison has played the Petaluma Farmers Market for the last several years, including about half a dozen times this summer, performing with bassist Chad St. Clair in the gazebo in Walnut Park. The duo will be playing this Sunday at Jasper O'Farrell's in Sebastopol.

"Chad has a great feel for my music as a bass player," said Mattison. "He doesn't play the bass in a traditional manner. He plays around the root."

As a musician working in the folk and roots genre, Mattison feels he's carrying on a creative energy that's historical as well as musical. "There are two schools of thought," he said, "the purists and evolutionary school of thought. I tend toward the latter. Folk music has always offered observations on the world around us."

Mattison has observed much of the world through extensive travels with his wife Kim. Both grew up in San Jose and graduated from UC Santa Barbara. The couple spent a year and a half backpacking through Asia before moving to Petaluma in 1991. They now own and operate a Montessori preschool and kindergarten program in Penngrove.

Before settling down, they took several other trips, working to save enough money to travel for several months at a time. They have visited Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and India, in addition to tent camping throughout the United States.

"Some good songs came out of that," he said. "It also gave me an appreciation for the real America, the one you don't see in popular culture." Some of the songs "percolated for awhile," he said, and didn't some to fruition right away. Songs like "Over Yonder Faire" and "That Old Train" resonate of rural America.

Mattison counts among his influences and inspirations Jimmie Rogers, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead. "The Dead were a great inspiration to play music the way my heart told me," he said. "The way they were always on the road opened up (traveling) as a wonderful thing. I got bit by that bug and wound up in a lot of interesting places in the world."

Mattison recorded Back-roads Heart Attack at Petaluma's Grizzly Studios with Dave Zirbel (of Mother Truckers) on lead guitar, pedal steel and dobro, drummer Jesse Wickman and bassist Paul Hoffman. Layne Bowen played mandolin and Callie Watts added backing vocals.

"The way I approached the first CD was we were going to make a folk rock album from the acoustic side. The great thing about doing the first CD was I found my (creative) voice in the process.

"As I started writing a lot of material that ended up on my second CD, I heard a different sound in my head: a fuller, more alt-country kind of place. It was an intensive process, listening to it and emotionally opening up. As a byproduct of the first CD, I heard the second one. That was the one I wanted to make."

Mattison's CDs are available by mail for $15 by writing him directly at P.O. Box 2692, Petaluma 94953. Backroads Heart Attack is also available at local record stores and on the Internet through CD Baby and Amazon.com. He also sells his CDs at his shows.

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