Preview
MATT MASTERS
Friday, March 28
Double Mo Café
Saturday, March 29
Ship and Anchor Pub
If you’re an Alberta city boy playing country music in an Irish pub in southern Spain, and people are digging it, it’s a bit of an odd twist on multiculturalism. Calgary songwriter Matt Masters, who played just such a gig while in Spain in January, has learned a thing or two about human nature across the cultures and around the world.
"I played a show in Italy in 1999 – I had a guitar and cowboy hat with me…. It was interesting to be playing to a totally different type of audience. The further away I get from Calgary, people are more willing to believe entirely in me," says Masters, whose offstage name is Matt Burgener.
It’s no wonder that people believe in Masters, for his textured life informs his music. It was during his time in a B.C. boarding school that Masters developed a taste for Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes and "shitty pop." Later he came to prefer more engaging acts like Pavement and Archers of Loaf. Yet, despite the fact that his dad strummed guitar around the house and his mom shone in her high school and college theatre and singing projects, Masters himself is surprised he turned out country.
While in Vancouver as a 20-year-old, Masters wrote a country song, prompting his roommate to suggest that Masters form a country band called Matt Masters and the Gentlemen of the Rodeo.
His first shows didn’t take place until he returned to Calgary and was invited to perform at the old Friday night Hot Nuts and Popcorn show. He had been friends with the creators of the variety improv show since high school, and when they needed a musical guest, it was only natural that they ask Masters to play one of his country songs.
"So I put on the vest and cowboy hat," says Masters.
Later, after he completed a University of Calgary degree in European history – which he chipped away at for nearly nine years – Masters relocated to Toronto, but he’s still wearing the western duds. And even though he’s found it hard to scrape by, he’s managed to make a CD, entitled The Alberta Reporter, by recording it in his friend’s bedroom. He’s spent part of his current trip back to Calgary burning CDs one by one, and delivering them to record stores.
Not that he’s likely to remain a cottage industry for long. Masters has a knack for finding himself within serendipitous friendships – like the one with the Hot Nuts folks, or with the organizers of the annual and notorious Rock Central Stampede breakfast, where he performs every year.
He’s making new friends in Toronto, as well, where he knows one of the singers in Jeff Healey’s jazz band. Within days of hitting town, he was invited up mid-set to share the stage with Healey. And even his former band, The Gentlemen of the Rodeo, was kissed by the spotlight when the guitar player, Paul Spence, left to soak up the glow of FUBAR fame.
But hanging with a cool crowd has its drawbacks. Masters relates a story about one of the Rock Central Stampede breakfasts, when one of his real rancher friends showed up to hear him play. Afterward, they walked over to the Saddledome, where Masters’s dad was taking part in the team penning competitions. Masters’s friend had to explain to him what was going on.
"I was wearing this flash getup with metal clips on a big bow tie, and she was like, ‘If I see anyone I know, I’m going to catch so much shit.’ She was walking with the most ridiculous looking Hollywood-styled cowboy ever.
"Like, if you go away from Calgary, whether I’m in Toronto or Spain, it’s enough distance that people say, ‘Is this what you’re like in Calgary?’ Whereas if I played in Turner Valley or somewhere, they’d just take me outside and kick my ass into the mud.
"They just don’t know what the level of cowboy-ocity is." |
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