Speaker 1: W mnh rips the nobles.
Speaker 2: When Mattso wakes up in the morning, he gets into
the shower and to the top of his lungs, he sings,
I want because I can't. All right, I'm back to
the radio show now on the best Cherry.
Speaker 1: Won't you take me.
Speaker 3: To the ocean's side. I'll catch a boat and our
sail across the sea. Tell them Mada not to come.
Speaker 1: And then, won't you take me.
Speaker 4: Out to the desert hut so I can see what
I'm really made. Tell them man not come in.
Speaker 1: Man, you see it takes time to make time in
this Praise Praises city.
Speaker 5: I'm going where they say all the living.
Speaker 6: Won't you take me up to the bass land so
I can see for miles around?
Speaker 1: Tell them man not come man mack. Won't you take me.
Speaker 4: Up to the mountains high where the trees they rise
to the sky.
Speaker 1: Till them man dot cone And because it takes.
Speaker 7: Time, the mad time where the rays raises city, I'm.
Speaker 1: Going where the city all the live.
Speaker 5: Bands easy, yes they do.
Speaker 8: Now, won't you take me.
Speaker 1: Up to heaven.
Speaker 8: So can see.
Speaker 1: Everyone that I've ever loved. Tell them mattera not come back.
Won't you take me to the darkas night.
Speaker 6: Where nobody else says ever been, tell them matter not
come in.
Speaker 1: Because it six.
Speaker 9: Time the mad time in this crazy, crazy city.
Speaker 5: I'm going with the s all the liver easiy where time.
Speaker 1: Crazy crazy scene all the man.
Speaker 10: What a great track that is Matt Axton and the
song is crazy City And we're going to be speaking
with him in just a moment. Welcome everybody. We have
entered our number two numrow doos of Matt Connorton unleashed
on this Saturday morning, September twentieth, from the studios of
w m n H ninety five point three FM and
Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And Matt Axton is going to
becoming a Manchester on September twenty fourth at the Rex Theater.
But uh, let's see if we have him on the line. Matt,
are you there?
Speaker 11: Yes, sir? Right here?
Speaker 10: Hey, welcome, So you are you are calling from the road? Correct,
You're out on tour right now? Where Where are you
calling us from?
Speaker 11: We're out in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. We played at the
Guthrie Center last night out here, the Rlogutree Center.
Speaker 10: Oh, very nice, very nice. Yeah, you're touring. Let's see,
so you started this month and then you're touring into
October as well. Correct, you're out for uh, you're out
on the road for a couple of months.
Speaker 11: Absolutely.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 11: This is the longest tour to date from US. We
came all away from Los Angeles, California, started out in Oklahoma,
I went down south and I've just been hitting our
first ever you know, Eastern Seaboard, Northeast run of our
of our existence, and we're very excited.
Speaker 10: Oh very cool. Well, welcome to New England and I
know you're gonna be You're gonna be right here in
Manchester on the twenty fourth. I want to so, I
want to start here because I so I played that
song Crazy City. You sent you sent us a bunch
of tracks to choose from. I opened with that one
because selfishly, that is my favorite, and I want to
tell you what I love about it, you know, because
you sort of you sort of blend genres a little bit,
you know you, I know it kind of falls under
the Americana genre, a category of what you do but
but that, but that tends to be a mix of things.
Americana is kind of a broad term. It tends to
be a mix of things. What I love about Crazy
City is, you know, it's got that Americana, that folk
sort of touch of country vibe, not not too countries.
It's not overly twangy, but it's you know, just it's
such a great song. But then you get to that
point in the song too, where it kind of gets
a little bit funky and a little bit of soul
to it, and I really like the way you slip
that into the song. It kind of changes a little bit,
but it also fits in so seamlessly. But I noticed
it the first time I listened to it, when it
gets to that part and you know, the part of
the song. I mean, obviously, I'm like, oh, I really
like that. So I think that is such a great tune.
That is my personal favorite of the ones that I
listen to. And but you do you kind of you
kind of blend genres a little bit, and I really
like that, and I love that song. I wanted to
tell you that right up front. I think that's such
a great track.
Speaker 11: Oh well, thank you for mentioning that and listening. I'm
glad that one struck you like that, because yeah, absolutely,
you mentioned sort of Americana as a catch all term
in the industry, and you know, some people think of
that maybe, you know, sometimes it can be too broad
of a genre, but I think that is its strength
to me, is that you can mix, like you said,
a little bit of country, a little a little folk,
a little rock and roll. Sometimes you can get a
little bluegrass, a little soul in there. And I come from,
you know, a legacy. My dad, Hoyd Axton, really never
fit in one genre. He hopped all over. He just
believed in writing a good song, no matter what kind
it was. And I fell under that as well. I
couldn't help but escape, you know, but embrace that mentality
around songwriting. So in a show, we're gonna sort of
take you on Americana journey, is what I say. At
the beginning of the show. We're going to mix it
up a little bit and tell some good legacy stories
and in the end, I just want you to tap
your foot, get your mind moving a little bit, and
give you a little escape if we can.
Speaker 10: So I'm curious to ask you about this, is is
there a certain I've heard musicians who who have you know,
famous families, or that they have a famous mom or
a famous dad. Or talk about how there can be
a certain weight to that. There's a certain pressure that
comes with that, And I'm curious if that's how it
is for you. Obviously you're very proud of your legacy.
You embrace it, but you don't. But but you don't
You embrace it, but you don't you know, kind of
you have your own identity, I guess is what I'm
trying to say. Like, you are Matt Axton and you
have original music that you've created. You know, you're not
doing You're you're not doing a show that where you
just go out and play your dad's music for example.
Maybe you have done that in the past. I don't know.
But you have your own music, you have your own vibe,
you have your own sound. But you also have this
incredible legacy that you have to of your family that
you have to carry around with you. Is there any
kind of pressure with that or do you take that
in stride or are you are you very comfortable with
it or how do you how do you deal with that?
I'm really curious about that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, absolutely, Well, you know, I don't think of it
as a pressure much. I think of it more as
an honor. Yeah, way, they're both. My grandmother was an
amazing you know, songwriter and curator of community through art,
and she started a lot of musicians in the industry,
mainly in Nashville and in the sixties through the nineties,
and so, you know, it's an amazing legacy to keep alive.
But it's so like the communal I touched so many
different genres, different generations of musicians, and I feel like
I'm more walking with them than you know, it's like
to have them on my shoulders, weighing anything down. And
I'm lucky in one way too that the legacy I
get to keep alive is pretty dang fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 11: You know, my dad's biggest song was Joy of the World,
and that was really his mantra around life is the
joy of art and community that you can create through that. So,
you know, every once in a while we'll do a
white dedicated show, you know, I'll get grab his band
and we'll do some some very very history leaden stuff.
But for me, like I mentioned earlier, my dad was
so eclectic. I can really mix in his songs in
any way that we can, and that's a real challenge
and a fun thing for me is to sort of
like sort of weave in all the legacy stuff into
our original songs as well. And then I have the
accent curse of just way way too many songs, hundreds
of them. They keep pouring out of my brain all
the time. It's a curse, like I said, but it's
also a really fun adventure every time. And one other
thing that's different with my legacy too is a lot
of legacy kids have one parent who's the creative and
then one parent who sort of stays home and keeps
everything balanced. And I did not have that aspect. My
mom was my dad's piano player and band manager and
tour manager. So when it was time to go on
the road, it was a musical, you know, we all went,
the whole family. So I was just always sort of,
you know, in wrapped in this this lifestyle.
Speaker 10: Growing up in a family like that. Was it just
kind of a foregone conclusion that this is what you
were going to be doing? I mean, was there any
was there or a moment growing up where you thought,
you know, I might I might do this for a career,
I might do that, I might do something else, or
was it just always was this always the obvious path
for you.
Speaker 11: I mean, truthfully, no, no, it wasn't. I mean music
was always around. Like people ask like, oh, you know,
did you did you like it? Were you going to
do it? And I'm like, well, it just was always
there was just a thing that was constantly happening. But
I know, I was I was supposed to go. I
got a scholarship to go play football at University of
Oklahoma oh High School, and that was that was sort
of my you know, my main direction. I was going
to go do sports. And then I ended up hurting
my knee really bad and had to get surgery. And
as I was laid up for a few months, laying
on the couch, I grabbed a guitar and I started drumming.
I was like, wow, this is sort of easy. Let
me see if I can write a tune. Okay, that
was fun. Let's keep going. And what the rest is history.
You haven't put it down since you know, I'll be damned.
Speaker 10: That's wild. So if you hadn't got hurt, you know,
you you you might have gone on to the NFL.
Who knows, right, But but it's interesting, so and and
so obviously getting injured that's a terrible thing. But you know,
you took it and you you did something positive with it,
using that time to really, uh, to effectively start your
music career right at that moment, you know, as your own,
as your own entity on your own path. That's that's
fantastic and uh, that's wild. Do you ever look back
and think, I mean, do you still have thoughts about
what would have happened if you had if you had
been able to just continue to play football without the
interruption of that injury? Do you ever do you ever
have fantasies about playing in the NFL or anything like that?
Speaker 11: Or oh absolutely, especially when I go look at my
bank statements and my guess, you know what was wrong
with me? No, but but you know, it's one of
those things. Everybody has those moments in our life right
where it's the fork in the road and like, hey,
if I would have chose this, what would have happened?
What would my life be like? And the reality is,
you know, as much fun as it would have been
to do that and live that lifestyle, I love that.
I actually coached high school basketball for ten years after that,
when I was still you know, I was still an
active musician up in Northern California. Where I'm from, I
was able to coach and sort of the slow seasons,
and so I've always been able to stay active in
sports that way. Yeah, but I think, you know, music is,
like you mentioned, it's such a connector. It's an amazing thing,
you know, it's the only the closest thing to magic.
I think we have in the world right art and
music in particular and cross languages and oceans and generations.
And the Night People has done well and really inspire
people if it's it's needed. And I just think, you know,
there's nothing more powerful than a really good good song sometimes,
So that's that's an honor. And I tell you, boy,
show was like my soul is very full. It's just
my wallet and gas tank gra empty.
Speaker 10: Understandable, Matt, I don't. I don't know if something shifted
on your end all of a sudden. The phone line
is a little bit choppy. I don't know if you
if you went to a different room or something.
Speaker 11: Okay, something, Well, I'm still here. I have not moved
in the corner of this little room here.
Speaker 10: Okay. Yeah, it just sounds that's okay, Well, we'll we'll
work with it though. And then so, uh, when you
you said this, this is the longest store that you've
been on so far, coming out, coming all the way
out to the East coast.
Speaker 11: Yeah. Absolutely. So we usually go out to Nashville about
every six months and sort of zigzag back to California
and add some markets, and this is the first time
we have decided to go east out of Nashville. We
were there for Americana Fess for about a week and
we got this gig up here in Great Barrington at
the gut three Center, and we wanted to build a
tour around it. So my mom is actually from upstate
New York, so I've spent a little time growing, you know,
as a kid coming out here. But we wanted to,
you know, go full force and bring our music to
to new ears and hopefully make a bunch of new friends.
Speaker 10: Oh outstanding. By the way, whatever was wrong with the
phone cleared up, so it's just probably something some kind
of external issue. I can hear you great now, so
which is good because I'm enjoying. I'm enjoying talking with you.
You mentioned too, you've got a lot of songs. Did
I read this correctly? You've you've have you recorded over
three hundred songs already. Is that number correct?
Speaker 11: I've written over three hundred songs. I'm all recorded about
thirty or forty. But like I said, it's a continual process,
I think for the rest of my existence.
Speaker 10: So when you go to record an album or you're
gonna be going into the studio, is it hard to pick?
I mean, it's a good problem to have, I guess, right,
to have so much material, But is it hard to
uh make those decisions about what you're gonna record and
what you're gonna maybe put on the back burner knowing
that you some songs you might never get a chance
to record, right because you've written so many? I mean,
is that is that difficult to narrow that down?
Speaker 11: I mean a little bit. And like I said, it's
a good problem to have a problem on the left. Yeah,
And what I try to do, I always try to
do one one hot cover song every album, you know,
pay homage to one of his tunes. Yeah, and so
so that's going to add in, you know, a little
bit more time to that process. But you know, right now,
the group I'm bringing on tour, my main group, it's
called you know, Mad Accident, Bad Moon is sort of
a more country leaning Americana outfit. Ye, and we do
a lot of we lean I tell for fans of
white Accent and the Almond Brothers basically what we meet.
So there's a lot of what we call guitar minies.
There's two guitars sort of you know, singing together a lot,
which brings you know, that that element of Almen Brothers,
grateful Dead, you know, the southern rock element to it with.
So so when we started playing a couple of years ago,
naturally my songwriting style will start adjusting to that. I'll
go dig into the vault and I'm like, oh, I
wrote this song a long time ago that would fit
really well. So it's constantly sort of you know, unearthing
stuff and then adding new things and adjusting. So it's
like I said, it's a it's a challenge, but it's
something that you know, I will run at full force.
Speaker 10: Have you always played with a full band or did
you ever do solo shows just you on a guitar
on a on a seol or anything like that or
is it always a full band?
Speaker 12: No?
Speaker 11: Absolutely, we sort of mix it up all the time.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 11: I do a lot of solo you know, folks, singer
songwriter stuff. That's how my dad, you know, cut his teeth.
He just grabbed a guitar and jumped in the car
and travel over the country in the early sixties and
went to every music mecca he could find and just
absorbed as much as he could.
Speaker 13: You know.
Speaker 11: He went up to New York, went to Chicago, went
down south to the blues mecchas and and that really,
you know, set them up on the path. Like I said,
it me hyper eclectic and just really wanting to write
a good song. And I couldn't help, but you know,
sort of follow that path, and there's something, you know,
it's a different connection with just you and a guitar
on a stage. You know, there's nowhere to hide with
the band you can have. You know, there's much higher hives.
You know, you can just get so much more sound.
But I enjoy both the truthfully. You know, when I
grew when I was born, my dad was I'm my
dad's youngest kid, so he was a lot more settled
and had a very consistent band by the time I
came around. But what he would do every show, if
he would start it with the full band and they
he'd send him off in the middle and he'd just
come out with the guitar and do a lot of
his early folk stuff, and that was always the moment
that people sort of resonated with the most that resonated
with them. Oh you know, so there's there's just something
raw and really intimate about doing that, and I love it.
I mean, I write all my songs that way. Yeah,
you know, just me and a guitar sort of. I
was born and raised up in Lake Tahoe, California, up
in the heights here in Nevada Mountains, and you know,
I just go sit out there on the porch and
stare out into the into nature and try and get
inspired whenever I can. And now I live in Los Angeles,
so now I stare at traffic and get inspired.
Speaker 10: You know, it's a lot of fun, a lot of
traffic there, that's for sure. So you mentioned it. So
you're the youngest. You said, you're the youngest child of
your dad. Yeah, yeah, did your siblings. I don't know
how many siblings you have, but have any of them
also taken this path or just you in terms of
you know, your dad's legacy following that is and becoming
a musician and doing all that you're doing. Are you
the only one or.
Speaker 11: I'm the only one left doing it as a full
time thing. All my siblings tried in some sort of form.
My sister April tried to do She went more of
the acting side of things. My oldest brother Mark went
to the production side. He was the smart one, oh
and stuff behind the scenes. And then my middle brother
Michael was tried to do the sort of the traveling
troubadour thing. So they all they all gave it a
good shot and all talented in their own right. But
now it's you know, it's followed on me. Like I said,
I have, they had a different mother. My mom is
the one who sort of like sort of balanced everything out.
I tell people my mom is a classical piano master,
like you know, maestro. Yeah, and my dad is a
country bumpkin. So I land somewhere right in the middle
of it too.
Speaker 1: I try so.
Speaker 10: Now I'm not sure you know you mentioned you're the youngest.
I'm not sure when exactly your dad passed away, But
did he ever get to see you you on a
stage plane or I'm not sure the timeline.
Speaker 11: No, Yeah, so he passed away actually in nineteen ninety nine.
Oh that millennium. Wow, you know when I was sixteen
years old when he did. So, you know, we we
we connected enough to have some good moments. But no,
that was he passed before I was ever ever able
to find my own voice. Really okay, But what he
would do, you know when we were on tour, he'd
bring the kids up every show, he picked songs to
bring the kids up. We always do enjoy the world
as a big family group at the end. So well,
I got to be on stage with him and share
some musical moments, but never got to show him, you know,
show him my own voice.
Speaker 10: Like I said, Yeah, that's cool though that you got
to be on stage with him, that's uh. And to
do that, that's that's great. And what about your mother
is she Is she still with us or.
Speaker 11: Yeah? Absolutely? She actually came out for the show last night.
On very special occasions they get to bring her out
and she still plays in the band and she's absolutely
the highlight, the best person on the stage every time.
And when I go back up to Lake Tahoe, I
run a couple music festivals and nonprofit music you know,
music nonprofits up in my hometown and she sort of
leads that and we jump in. She jumps in the band,
and I get to jump in her band all the time.
So that part's still magical, keeping played alive with people.
Speaker 10: Oh in his band, that's that's fantastic. That must be
so much fun. That is so cool that you get
to do that. And I'm sure she's very very proud
of you. And that's that's great.
Speaker 11: That's that's awesome, and and you know, and she's really
good too. That's the fun part. It's not just being like, oh,
here's my mom. It's all do something amazing and she
does it.
Speaker 10: Oh, that's that's outstanding.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 10: By the way, So the tour, so I was reading,
the tour is called Beast Goes East. Now, obviously the
East I get because you're you're living on the West
coast and we're on the East coast. But why why Beast?
Speaker 11: Well, so one of the people cannot tell from us
talking about football and all that kind of good stuff.
I'm a larger human being, okay. And one of our
our mascots, you'd say, is that people people call me
the last California and Grizzly, So there's a lot of
bear influences and a lot of our artwork and all
that kind of stuff. So it's more, you know, the
Beastly Bear is finally treading east type thing and just rhymes,
you know, as musicians like rhymes.
Speaker 10: Right right, that's true. Yeah. I'm looking at a picture
on your website of you and three other guys who
I assume are in your band, and you are kind
of how tall are you because in this picture? But
you can't tell from a picture. I mean you could
be standing on something I don't know, but it looks
like you're towering over everybody else.
Speaker 11: Well I make them do that. That's the ego things,
got check them. No, But so I'm about six four.
Oh you're a good day.
Speaker 10: Okay. You're a big guy.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yep, yump, and you know, two hundred and sixty pounds,
but getting a little bigger every day on tour. I'll
tell you what. But it's you know, Also, it's funny
because I have a pretty tall band too. Just really
happen that way, and so most people don't notice until
I get off stage, you know, then I start talking
to like, oh my god, they're like what happens, pecially
with the cowboy boots? On being near eight feet tall, right, so,
but yeah, that's the best the beast sleep part.
Speaker 1: Like I said, where.
Speaker 10: Does your height come from? Was your father tall?
Speaker 11: You know, he was about six feet tall, but he
was he was as wide as the Mississippi type of thing.
And yeah, he always wore cowboy boots and a big
cowboy hat. So he just had one of those larger
than life sort of personalities and statues. My mom's tall.
My mom's six foot one, So I think six' one
plus six feet equals six four and that's.
Speaker 10: Just matha think, Well, that's definitely Yeah, there's definitely something
genetic on your mom's side, because six to one that's
very tall for a woman that's very tall. Yeah right,
oh yeah, that would that would that would definitely explain it. Wow,
So you're gonna be uh so, what's your for our
listeners who are in the area. Of course, you know
online we have listeners all over, but for our local
listeners who listen on FM here in Manchester, what what
should they What should they expect? Again, you're going to
be at the Rex Theater on September twenty fourth. Looks
like shows at seven point thirty. Do you have a
do you have an opener with you or or is
it is it just you and your band? Or how
does that? How does that work?
Speaker 11: No, this one is just us and our band. You know,
when we were reaching out trying to figure out how
to set this tour up, you know, the Palace Theater
and the Rex Theater are like, hey, you let's just
give it a shot. Just come out here and see
if we can, you know, give you a good a
good spotlight to bring your music. And yeah, very grateful
for that. Like I said, it's our first time in
all these markets and we'd love to sort of make
this a routine. We've had a great tour so far,
just like I said, meeting good people and telling good stories.
And we sort of adjust the show to every different venue.
You know, on this tour, we've done a couple of festivals.
We do some late night honky tonks, some fun little
divy bars, and we really changed the show to every place.
And I know, like last night at the Guthree Center,
we did a little more intimate, a little a lot
more history and storytelling and explaining the ins and outs
and the whiys of the artistic lifestyle and all that
fun stuff. So the rest will be similar to that.
But at the same time, we like to we like
to you know, rock out and groove out and get
people to sort of tap their feet and have a
good time. So it's going to be a good mix
of those and that's my job is to figure out
exactly how to give you, guys, the best experience for
the people in the room.
Speaker 10: I'm curious, Sue, do you know do you know ahead
of time before you arrive at the venue, do you
know enough about that particular venue where you've already planned
out what the show is or or are you going
into that are you kind of reading the room? Like
do you arrive at the venue and you kind of
check the place out and you think, Okay, now that
I'm here, Now that I'm physically here and I can
take this all in. Now I kind of know what
the show is going to be tonight. I mean, is
it that spontaneous or do you already know before you
arrive at the venue.
Speaker 11: No, it's a good mix, you know, especially for new
markets and new venue, is right you sort of you know,
we know this is more of a seated theater, so
we'll treat that a little differently than we will, Like
a couple of days ago, we played at this you know,
rockous honky Tonk in New York City, So we're gonna
we know, we're gonna treat those a little differently in general, right,
but you know, we also adjust when we get in there.
We want to fill the I mean, this sounds so
hippie dippy artists, but we're gonna like sort of fill
the energy and yep and talk to the staff and
talk to you know, see who's coming and showing up
and sort of working around that. And it's really a challenge,
but it's a really fun one and something that you know,
we're working really hard on and very proud of the
ability to do that.
Speaker 10: And it's nice that you play the style that you
play and the configuration of your band and everything that
gives you some flexibility to kind of change that on
the fly if you need to, which is which I'm
sure is very nice. I'm always kind of jealous of that.
I'm a musician and I've played in some bands, but
none of the bands that I ever played in were
the kind of band where we could show up at
a venue and say, oh, let's change the vibe a
little bit. You know what I mean. It's like if
you're playing in a you know, a hardcore metal band
or something, it's, you know what, you're doing the same
thing no matter where you're playing. But I've always been
kind of envious of musicians who have that a scenario
where they can kind of switch it up if they
need to. But no, that's really cool. So that's gonna
be uh yeah, September twenty fourth at the Seventh at
seven thirty pm at the at the Rex Theater right
in downtown Manchester and by the way too for our
local listeners. If you've never been to the Rex, it's
really beautiful, so you should definitely check it out. And
this sounds like it's going to be a great show.
So Matt, before we let you go, and we are
going to play another track at the end of our conversation,
I think I'm gonna play Same Old Story because that's
another one that I really like a lot. I think
that's really cool. But anything else too. We should know
about how people should find you online. Where's the best
place to go to follow everything that you're doing. I
know you've got you've got a huge social media following,
which is fantastic. And such an important part too of
you know, the times that we live in having that
social media following. That's something your dad never had to
worry about, certainly, but in twenty twenty five, you gotta
work with social media. But where's the best place for
people to go online to follow everything that you're doing?
Speaker 11: Yes, or main site and a number one I cannot
agree more Like, we just live in a digital social
world now, and so that's what it's all about, right,
I mean, the power is in the independent artist's hands,
and I'm fiercely, proudly independent when it comes to that stuff.
So every every clap and every click really matters a
lot to people in our realm.
Speaker 10: Yep.
Speaker 11: But so matdaccident dot com is the main site, very simple,
and then Matt acts and music on all the social
media platforms on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all those things.
And you know, it's something social media is amazing because
you can really connect with people that you wouldn't really
have got any chance to in the past. It can
be daunting and crazy at times, but in the end,
it's that's what it's about, with connecting with people. So
please come say hi on any sort of way. Obviously
in person is the best, so they can I can
builk you for all your all your bitcoins or whatever.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 11: But in the end, I said, it's just about connecting
with people and spreading a little bit of joy.
Speaker 10: That's our job absolutely. And before before we let you
go and we're gonna play this track, same old story.
Anything we should know about this song. I really like
this song a lot too, Anything we should know about it?
Speaker 11: Yeah, So this is one I was talking about earlier
where I've had it for quite a while and when
I got this band together, I've had my right hand man,
guitar player Taylor krop Slash Almond Brothers proteget sort of
playing with him for about three years, two and a
half years. He's the main other player in the band.
Once he joined the band, I was like, Oh, I'm
gonna go dig into my archives and pull this song out,
and it's become sort of a staple. It's the last
single we just released. It's the one we're turning around
right now, and very proud, very proud of it. And
it's just a good old fashioned like sort of outlaw
country vibe, but with the you know, the the the
story of the common things, you know, some some some money,
some heartbreak, some life experiences that we all sort of
connect with at the end with a little uplift at
the end, saying hey man, we can all, we can
all figure this out. It's just the same old story.
Let's go.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I love it, absolutely love it, very good. So
we're gonna we're gonna end with that. So we'll let
you go so we can hit that track. But matt Axon,
thank you so much. Have a great show, have a
we'll have a great Where are you playing tonight, by
the way.
Speaker 11: We're playing out in New Jersey somewhere. Oh, I don't
even know where I.
Speaker 10: W day somewhere on these cost people can go to
the website to find it. But UH, so I have
a great show tonight in New Jersey. And and of course,
UH sounds like the tour is going well, so we
wish you continued success with that. And UH look forward
to having you in Manchester on September twenty fourth. And
thank you so much for joining us today. I really
enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 1: UH.
Speaker 10: You've been generous with your time. It's great to speak
with you, and UH, and UH be safe.
Speaker 1: On the road.
Speaker 11: Well, thank you so much for letting me talk. And
uh and uh you know a great name by the way,
Matt's to Nite.
Speaker 10: Yes, yes, absolutely, Matt's to Night.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 11: All right, thk you again and yeah, thanks for playing
our music out there.
Speaker 10: You got it, you got it all right, Matt, Thank you,
take care all right bye? All right. That was the
great Matt Axton. And again He will be in Manchester
at the Rex Theater on September twenty fourth, seven thirty pm.
But let's play this again. I really really like this
song a lot. This is called same old story and
this is Matt Axton.
Speaker 1: It's the same.
Speaker 14: Old story once say again? And I guess some things
just name.
Speaker 8: Change.
Speaker 4: Well, now, he was just a nice young man getting
by the best he can, just wanted to do things right,
have a happy house and home, shrid to love. His
wife came back one day after.
Speaker 6: Sleeping all way, opening the door up the stairs, but
his wife was not a loan up there.
Speaker 1: It's broken. Oh, it's a broken heart and home. But
it's the same story. Won't again?
Speaker 10: And I guess some things just say a change.
Speaker 1: Won't you try a bit?
Speaker 8: Now?
Speaker 1: You won't mother?
Speaker 10: Then if you take too much, too little, vactor.
Speaker 8: Turn the bad.
Speaker 15: Money don't mean a thing when you're stone, read book.
Speaker 1: Don't bother me for change. They have be healthy as
long as you can remember. There's no money in the cure.
Speaker 8: It's in the treatment. Man.
Speaker 1: But it's the same old story. Won't again. And I
guess somethings just say a change. I am just one
little life, an actor in this great It lived day
and night just to think, think in the scheme of time.
Grateful for what I have and what I find amaze.
Speaker 6: That's what I grab.
Speaker 1: I'm the ones that came before to give me a change.
But it's the same old story once again.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I guess somethings just need a shame.
Speaker 13: But it's the same one story was again and I
guess somethings the same.
Speaker 10: A change. That's a fun song, same old story. That
is Matt Axton and Matt Axton will be at the
Rex Theater on September twenty fourth, right here in Manchester,
New Hampshire, so check him out. But of course I
know we have listeners online from all over, so if
you go to Mattaxton dot com you can find all
this to our dates. He's gonna be playing he said,
somewhere in New Jersey tonight, and I really enjoyed speaking
with him, So thank you again, Matt. If you're still listening,
thank you again for joining us this morning. I really
enjoyed our conversation and I am definitely a fan. And
check out Matt Axton online. He's got a big social
media following too, so he's very easy to easy to find.
But again, he will be at the Rex Theater right
here in Manchester on September twenty fourth, so be sure
to uh you can get your tickets right online. And
let's see, well, speaking of shows and so forth, so well,
we'll get to this in a moment. There's there's some
pretty big music industry news I do want to dive
into with Jenny for a few minutes. But first we
should also talk about what we did one week ago
today last Saturday, because we went to a couple of
great events. Yeah, we did, so, we went to uh,
we had your your art was featured in the what
was the actual name of the show again.
Speaker 16: Well Circle it's the annual Full Circle show at the
Mosaic Art Collective yep, and I have two pieces on display.
Speaker 10: Only one is available. Oh yes, one of them soulds congratulationing.
Speaker 16: Yeah, that was amazing. I've never actually had something stell
at the opening before, so that was actually really cool
to have happened. Yes, there's a whole lot of people.
There are lots of good food, lots of good people.
And you know, if you don't know the Mosaic Are Collective,
you really should. It's one of the greatest art places
I think here in the Queen City. I'm a little biased,
maybe I don't know, but you should go check it out.
The Full Circle. The show is going to be staying
up for the rest of the month, and there is
currently an an open call right now for the Exquisite
Corpse Show and that show opening will be October eleventh.
The deadline to submit pieces is us I believe September
twenty eighth. September twenty eighth at midnight is the deadline.
If you go to Mosaic Artcollective dot com you can
see the instructions. It's very easy to submit and you
know it's worth doing. In this particular show, they're looking
for not just you know, scary, but unique, the unexpected
things that inspire you, creations that are strange that are uncanny,
that emerge from themselves. If you will, you know, take
it as you will, go read up on it at
mosaic Our Collective. I highly highly encourage you to do that.
The art collective is located at sixty six Hanover Suite,
Suite two oh one here in the Queen City, and
they also have an upcoming event coming up on September
twenty ninth at five forty five pm until seven ten.
They're hosting a new series called the Artist Talk Series.
It's going to take place once a month. It's going
to feature a panel discussion as well as talks from
professional artists and this month it is Florent Porisano. I'm
sorry if I pronounced your name wrong, please forgive me.
The front doors do lock at six pm, so if
you come up late, you're gonna need to call the
gallery to have somebody come in and get you in.
And that's coming up here on September twenty ninth at
five forty five right here at the mosaic Are Collective
at sixty six Hanover Street, Sweet to one, Manchester, New Hampshire.
Mosaic Arcollective dot com. I highly encourage you to go
check it out very good, very good.
Speaker 10: And then of course we went over to Bad Burger
that was so fun, Vices Inc. Vices Inc. And Plague Dad,
and of course Under the Horizon, who we were talking
about a bit in the first hour with our guests.
Under the Horizon came up in that conversation. Yeah, absolutely, swhere.
Speaker 16: Every time I see them, the better and better.
Speaker 10: They've gotten louder and heavier, and they're just so good
and they're so young too, They've got a huge career
ahead of them. So yeah, we love Under the Horizon. Great,
great job, and they really did. They put their all
into everything.
Speaker 16: There's so much energy in the stage you can't help
but just like get excited and should check them out.
Speaker 10: And Bad Burger is great. That was the first show.
They've been doing shows there for for quite a few
That was our first visit. That was our first visit to. Yeah,
and the sound was great, and yeah the Burger is
really good.
Speaker 16: Oh, the sound was excellent. The sound was excellent. And
I really took note of the fact that they really
took care of the artists. Yes, each individual band, each
individual artists. They didn't just set it and forget it.
Speaker 10: No, very professional.
Speaker 16: Yeah, big time, So definitely a great place to go
check out a band, have a bite to eat. We
definitely enjoyed ourselves and I would I would. And they
had that huge truck out front, so you can't miss it.
There's a big monster truck on Elm Street that says
bad Burger, so you can find it very easily right there.
Speaker 14: You stop and see that.
Speaker 16: I would definitely suggest doing that and check out under
the Horizon play Dad, Oh my god, I love him.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it was just it was a really great show.
Vice's Inc.
Speaker 13: Was amazing.
Speaker 16: It was so enjoyable and I really liked the venue
because I had it was comfortable, I could sit comfortably.
Speaker 10: So yeah, that was cool, really good, really good. And
then you want to mention what's happening today?
Speaker 16: Yes, today, today, today, today, go over to the Great
north Ale Works for their Paws and Pints party fundraiser
happening today from one pm to four pm. Matt and
I are definitely going to be stopping by. This is
a great, great thing. They actually ran a contest where
people submitted their pets, photos, cats and dogs to see
who was gonna win and be printed on their new
paw prints Blonde Ale, which is releasing today and they
used it as a fundraiser to benefit our local here,
the New Hampshire Animal Rescue League. And they raised forty
nine thousand dollars in the label contest alone for the
Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire.
Speaker 10: That is amazing. That is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 16: So if you go down there today, they're gonna reveal
the cans, you're gonna see who won the contest, what
animal is on the pawp pints blonde Ale. They're going
to have cans to go available. They come in four
packs as well. There is going to be just like
a party atmosphere fundraiser. They're raising more money today. All
of this, all these proceeds are going to the Animal
Rescue League of New Hampshire, which is awesome. You know,
anybody's been around us.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 16: Matt and I are our Katie parents and we love animals,
and I know that there was a large throth of animals,
especially cats, recently brought in to the state from flood zones.
So I know there's a lot of animals in the
state needing care, needing help, and needing fosters and needing homes.
So please do check out the Animal Rescue League of
New Yamshire and if you can make a donation great,
If you can help out or in any way possible,
please I encourage you to and I would definitely Matt
and I would definitely love to see you today at
the Great North Aleworks, located at ten fifty colt Ab
Unit fourteen, right here in the Queens City. If you've
never been there, it's an excellent place.
Speaker 10: I love the tacos. I'm just gonna say that out loud.
Speaker 16: I love the tacos and it's a wonderful family owned business.
Buy local, Shop local, go check out the Great North
al Works and they're awesome. Pause and pints fundraiser today.
Speaker 10: Very good, Very good. We have a little bit of
time I want to get in a music news story.
You know, we do like to cover if we have
a little bit of time in the show some weeks,
we'll cover some music industry news going on, especially with
the audience we have. We know a lot of musicians
listen to the show, a lot of industry people, and
I happen to see this pop up and this relates
to a subject that comes up often on the show,
and that is Live Nation and it's a ticketing arm Ticketmaster.
It's the same company. If you didn't know Live Nation
and Ticketmaster, they are interchangeable, kind of like Comcasts and Exfinity.
Speaker 16: You can say either one and it's the same company.
But again Healthcare Optum owned by the same people. Yeah,
everybody's good. Like businesses have like a ton of these days,
but it is kind of hard to keep track of
the subsidiaries.
Speaker 10: This is from Music Businessworldwide dot Com and I didn't
realize this until this morning, but this just happened a
couple of days ago. Live Nation and Ticketmaster sued by
the Federal Trade Commission over alleged illegal ticket resale tactics.
Because something that we've talked about on the show whenever
we talk about Live Nation and Ticketmaster is how you know,
because obviously over the years, ticket prices keep going up
and up and up, long before there was any hint
of severe inflation in the economy, just completely separate from
all that, you know, and people people feel gouged and
it gets so expensive. And one of the things that
goes on is, you know, we've talked on the show
about how these small companies that are effectively ticket scalpers
will buy up as soon as Live Nation puts a
show on sale, they'll buy up a bunch of tickets
and they'll resell them on their own sites at a
higher price, especially once Live Nation Ticketmaster runs out of
the tickets. But a lot of them have been bought
up by scalpers who then resell them. But what a
lot of people don't know is some of these companies
that are doing that are actually owned buy Ticketmaster. So
Ticketmaster sells tickets to these own their own yeah, to
themselves effectively, and use this system to jack up the prices. Yeah,
most people don't realize.
Speaker 16: I know about scalpers, and I've always thought that these
companies are supposed to have safeguards in place stop all
of that. Yeah, so I will say that, not that
I'm totally surprised, but heck wow.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's a dirty, dirty business.
Speaker 16: And then selling them back to you for triple the costs.
Speaker 10: So yeah, So here's the story. This is again, this
is from Music Business Worldwide dot Com. The Federal Trade
Commission has sued Live Nation and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster,
accusing the company of profiting from scalpers operating on its platform.
In a complaint filed on Thursday, September eighteenth, and the
US District Court for the Central District of California. The
FTC accused Ticketmaster of failing to uphold its own ticket
purchase limits, in effect allowing scalle Yeah, in effect allowing
scalpers to buy up large numbers of tickets and to
resell them on the secondary market at markups. So the
secondary market, that's these you know, it's them Joe's Tickets
dot Com or whatever. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 16: It only three yeah, yeah, they buy all the tickets,
and then if you really want to go, Yeah, the
only way to go is to pay those guys.
Speaker 10: And that's why Ticketmaster limits how many tickets you can buy.
It once except except they don't actually do it for themselves. Apparently.
The FTC says Ticketmaster is motivated to do this because
it makes additional fees on the tickets resale. Ticketmaster can
triple dip on fees, collecting fees from one brokers when
they purchase the tickets on the primary market, two brokers
again when Ticketmaster sells their tickets on Ticketmaster's secondary market,
and finally three consumers who purchase tickets from Ticketmaster on
its secondary market. Unquote says the complaint. Joining the FTC
in the lawsuit are the district attorneys of seven states, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah,
and Virginia. The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster violated the Bots
Act bots. The Bots Act, the twenty sixteen law for
forbidding the use of bots to buy tickets in online stores.
Live Nation has in the past supported the Bots Act,
or at least you know, on the public Publicly, the
FTC notes that Live Nation's policy is to allow artists
to sell to set ticket purchase limits themselves, but quote,
in private, defendants have tacitly worked with these very same scalpers,
allowing them to unlawfully purchase millions of dollars in tickets
in the primary market, so that defendants can extract more
profit for themselves when reselling those tickets on the secondary market.
Unquote what ruins the world. The FTC alleges that Ticketmaster
has been aware for years that certain ticket buyers have
violated the limit and turned a blind eye to the practice.
The complaint states that in twenty eighteen, Ticketmaster identified five
ticket brokers who control six three hundred forty five Ticketmaster
accounts and possessed more than two hundred forty six thousands
I'm sorry, two hundred forty six thousand tickets to nearly
twenty six hundred events Jesus FTC complaint against Live Nation. Okay,
so oh, we have to have the ticket prices up
so high, so, the complaint states, quote. In public, defendants
maintain that their business model is at odds with brokers
that routinely exceed ticket limits. In private, defendants acknowledge that
their business model and bottom line benefit from brokers preventing
ordinary Americans from purchasing tickets to the shows they want
to see at the prices artists set unquote. The FDC
also alleges that Ticketmaster is engaged in bait and switch tactics,
in which the company displays deceptively low ticket prices to
consumers and ends up charging much more at checkout. And
by the way, anyone who's ever bought tickets from Ticketmaster
knows exactly what that's about. You look at the price
of the tickets and you think, Okay, they're going to
cost this. I'm going to get two tickets. They're going
to cost this. Probably some sort of extra fee involved,
so it might be a little bit more, and then
you get to check out and it turns out it's like,
you know, you thought you were spending two hundred dollars
on tickets, You're actually spending over three hundred dollars on
tickets with all the fees and everything else. And is
this fee and that fee and you know anyway, so
it says your Live. Nation announced in twenty twenty three
that it was switching to an all in pricing model
at its owned venues in the US, under which the
final price, including fees, but excluding sales taxes, is shown
at the very beginning of the ticket purchase process. CEO
Michael Rapino has said that the switch to all in
pricing has proven to be a success, and the company
has backed efforts to make all in pricing the law.
Despite this, the FTC alleges that quote over the last decade,
the first price the consumer has seen on Ticketmaster's platform
has almost it's never been the price the consumer pays.
According to internal Ticketmaster documents, the average percentage of fees
charged on tickets ranges from twenty four to forty four
percent of the total price from twenty nineteen through twenty
twenty four, consumers paid over sixteen point four billion in
mandatory fees on ticket purchases from Ticketmaster unquote. That's from
the complaint. The lawsuit is separate from the anti trust
action which I think we talked about on the show
before that the US Department of Justice launched against Ticketmaster
and Live Nation in May of twenty twenty four. That
lawsuit alleges that the company engaged in quote monopolization and
other unlawful conduct that thwarts competition in markets across the
live entertainment industry unquote. The DOJ lawsuit is seeking to
break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, undoing a year's old
agreement that allowed the two to merge despite concerns over
the company potentially employing monopoly power in the live entertainment business.
Has accused Live Nation of violating the terms of that agreement.
In its lawsuit, The FTC says Live Nation slash ticket
Master controls quote roughly eighty percent or more of major
concert venues, primary ticketing for concerts and a growing share
of ticket resales in the secondary market unquote. As of
noon on Thursday, Live Nation shares were down three point
six percent on the New York Stock Exchange. Trending at
around one hundred and sixty three dollars per year. So
there you go. So that's the newest. And you know, look,
I'm a I'm a free market capitalist, and I think
that you know, I'm not into, you know, the idea
of the government coming in and controlling pricing for concert tickets, certainly,
but I'm also not in favor of you know, these
companies being able to blatantly violate the law bet and
Slitz baton switch, which is illegal obviously. And look, I mean,
even if even if you're someone who takes the position
that if you're if you're a true free market I mean,
I say free market capitalist, but I say that loosely
because I do believe that government has to regulate some things,
not to not to get in political because we don't
do that on this version of the show. But even
if you're someone who thinks that all this is fine,
because you don't think that the government should have anything
to say about it, legally or otherwise, and the FTC
shouldn't be getting into this. Even if you think that,
don't you at least want to know as a consumer,
don't you want to know why ticket prices are so
I just as a consumer, isn't it good to be
informed about it?
Speaker 16: But in the very least, shouldn't I think there's law
involved in the fact that they shouldn't be able to
violate their own rules, right, like you're not.
Speaker 10: The whole point of.
Speaker 16: Having these laws that you can't buy X number of
tickets is to stop scalping, is to stop people getting
ripped off. But if they make the rules and then
they're sending it, selling it to themselves, right, and then
selling it to you. Yeah, this whole triple dip thing,
I yeah, that's criminal. In my mind's eye, that's criminal.
Speaker 10: Well, there won't be any criminal penalties, I'm sure, but
there might be fines. But I mean Ticketmaster that that's
the other thing.
Speaker 16: In the very least they should have to be it
should at least be held accountable to their own rules
and regulation.
Speaker 10: Yeah, absolutely so, so that's the newest wrinkle with that.
Speaker 16: Remember where else can you get a ticket? It's they
have a monopoly on the market, right, It's it's very
hard to get tickets to venues outside of.
Speaker 10: Them, of course, of course, and it is a monopoly
absolutely all right, So we're going to close out this
hour with one more track from Matt Axxton, who again
is going to be at the Rex Theater on September
twenty fourth. We're gonna play this great song called Blue
Sky Rain, and then we're going to show some love
to our amazing sponsors. And then if you are listening
live in the in the third hour, if you're listening
live on Saturday in the third hour, we've got Lydia
ready coming up. She was on the show fairly recently,
but she's got a brand new single called The Way
We're Rolling, which I really like, so looking forward to
having her back. She's gonna be joining us to be
a Microsoft teams all the way from the UK. But
in the meantime, check this out again. This is another
great track from Matt Accent. This is called Blue Sky Rain.
Speaker 17: There's a blue scary rolling over the plane. There's a
blue scary rolling over the plane.
Speaker 1: Man, my good night, see it coming.
Speaker 18: It was two sticks when she say I can love
you any more? One chance is all I need. Come on,
one more, baby, please. I wouldn't never before get you,
no matter what I go through, because at one time
you were the stars and my sky, blue sky.
Speaker 17: Ray rolling over the plane, it's a blue sky rolling
over the plane, and I good.
Speaker 1: Now, UH see it coming. It was a big, shall
perpeted romance. It was a quick version of the slow
down unique the colors. But the picture, okay, I know
where I should be a baby. It's nice as a
skyy rolling over the plane. There's a blue sky rolling
over the plane.
Speaker 15: I could not see it coming, and I say, carrying
me down. So well, nobody will ever.
Speaker 12: Tell man, watch your man when you're said, I will
never let you go, never let you go.
Speaker 1: I never let you go. I never let you go.
I never let you go. Well, I have yet to
be a woman who does not play with the strings
of my heart.
Speaker 18: I wish it was not so easy about the peace
and and folleyball.
Speaker 1: But there's a flood. Guy,