Who: Matt Hoyles
When: September 19, 2020
Where: Garage studio, Vancouver BC
Genre: Blues
Well, it’s been what seems like an eternity that we’ve been missing out on the live music scene due to this worldwide pandemic, that’s why when Mell Kirkland from Vancouver Blues Around Town contacted me in early September to ask if I’d like to cover Matt Hoyles playing a live stream event in a private garage-based studio in Vancouver I couldn’t say yes fast enough!
Matt Hoyles is a New Zealand born blues musician that ended up moving to Vancouver to record and perform his killer take on classic 12 bar strum along blues music. Matt is big on the festival scene and has played several including The Rocking River Fest in Merritt BC and The Summer Fest in Milwaukee Wisconsin which boasts over eight hundred thousand attendees each year, and also a fixture at the blues and music venues around Vancouver. Besides the guitar Matt really does have a warm and soulful voice that lends itself perfectly to the kind of music that he plays and the lyrics that he writes, he also has this rad looking pair of electronic buckle on leg drums so that he can provide his own backbeat to play along to, he’s a seriously talented guy, let’s not forget the neck harp either.
Matt played an hour-long set for us with eight of his originals including “Leaving Home”, “Lord tell me When”, “Plague of the Unbelievers”, and my favourite track of his, “Redemption City” which he played to close out the show. Unfortunately for us, Matt has headed back to New Zealand for a while to be with his friends and family, we hope to see him back in Vancouver once this Covid thing has settled down.
Want to see the show? You’re in luck, watch it here.
For more photos from the show, head to our Facebook page!