Matthew Payne Coyote Howlin Blues
Texas hill country native Matthew Payne is just releasing a new EP Coyote Howlin Blues. It’s four original songs played on acoustic guitar, fiddle, harmonica and a gentle rhythm that emulate old time country and acoustic bluesy styles as they recount adventures and life experiences that resonate with a coyote’s howl. Matthew harnesses that rare sought-after quality storytelling songwriting muse that quality music lovers mine for, and the songs are top shelf.
In the title track, Matthew demonstrates his ability to howl in a bit of a “yip” on the chorus, and the adventure is driving with your knee at the wheel, while singing with a guitar on your lap and the coyotes out under the stars: “Can’t you hear them coyotes under them oak trees howlin at that hill country moon? / We rolled down the windows and let that wild wind blow and we was howlin to the coyote howlin blues.”
Harmonica underscores the soul searching and lonesome feel of the next one “The Light I Cannot See,” as it confronts hard truths: “So I never made it back to ya, never came to renew the love that we both made / It wasn’t our love, it was all love / I just couldn’t let myself be loved anyway / Lately I been thinkin bout the things that I been keepin and the weight of keepin all them things /
I want to travel lightly / I want to travel to the light I cannot see.”
“Spider House Blues” is a fast paced Texas hill country blues song about those intellectual hangouts after dark, perhaps taking place in Austin’s Spider House ballroom right now: “we was down at Spiderhouse, it was late and we was loud, we was talkin bout Dante and The Plague. I’s bringing Whitman’s Leaves of Grass wherever I did go, replyin in letter to The Letters of Van Gogh / we was high, we was low. we was young, and we was old, yeah we came with wild eyes, caught a kiss by surprise, and let everything else explode.” So many creative conversations take place after hours, and this depiction of that experience is utterly relatable and enjoyable.
With “Step Away,” the heartache is palpable and drawn into focus by the fiddle and the deeply sorrowful lines “I know how to step away from others / I know how to step away from the ones I don’t deserve / I know how to step away from lovers / I just don’t know how to step away from this hurt.” The arrangement and the instruments keep steady on the emotional pulse on this one.
Matthew’s vocals crack with raw authenticity and the songs sparkle like bright amethysts you find when you split open the dusty rocks of life. Life will offer shocking events and pain along with celebration and Payne clearly knows how to tackle them head on and draw out their pure human emotion in songs.
Find more information on this insightful newcomer, clearly a seasoned songwriter that’s been holding the songs back to age like fine wine, here on his website: https://www.thisismatthewpayne.net/
Coyote Howlin Blues was recorded at Cedar Creek Studio in Austin, Texas. it was engineered by Andre Moran, and mixed and mastered by Nick Landis in Austin. The album was recorded live, in a single take, as Matthew says, “Carter Family style.”
Musicians on Coyote Howlin Blues are Matthew Payne on vocals, guitar and harmonica; Camille Schiess on fiddle, and Dana Wygmans on upright bass.
Matthew Payne wrote all four original songs.
