Summer Art Workshop Registration
July 11 – 15, 2022
Pushing Limits
Nashville-based Americana singer-songwriter Matthew Szlachetka will explore the ins and outs of modern songwriting. We will dive into the musicology of various genres. Through a series of individual, group, and stream of conscious exercises we will push the limits of our songwriting creativity and ability. Matthew will guide students through a myriad approaches to self-expression, and shed light on how artistic creativity can parallel modern-day living and working.
Open to all – and poets welcome.
About his most recent album
Young Heart, Old Soul, the third album from roots-rock singer/songwriter Szlachetka, unfolds like the soundtrack to a cross-country road trip. Filled with heartland hooks, folk melodies, and searing electric guitar, these songs draw a line between Los Angeles — where Szlachetka lived for years, soaking up the warm harmonies and jangling riffs of the city’s folk-rock icons — and his new home in Nashville, TN, the epicenter of modern-day Americana.
Road trips are nothing new for Matthew Szlachetka. For the past half-decade, he’s been building his audience show-by-show, touring for more than 200 days a year while earning praise from outlets like Rolling Stone Country, who hailed his catalog of “road-dog roots-rockers and Americana ballads.” Young Heart, Old Soul finds him in transit once again, writing songs about a country torn apart by politics yet united by a common spirit. Unlike the two albums that came before it, though, Young Heart, Old Soul is also a record about home — the homes we leave behind, the homes we temporarily visit, and the homes we build with others. Maybe that’s why these 11 songs feel so grounded. After all, Szlachetka — whose self-made success includes high-profile shows alongside Brandi Carlile, Mike Campbell, and Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr and Benji Shanks; regular appearances on SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio; and his own DittyTV program, Vinyl Recipes, which combines his love for music, cooking, and cocktails — isn’t running anymore. Instead, he’s finally arrived.
“We’re not as different as we’re being made out to be,” says the songwriter, who grew up in Massachusetts. He launched his career during a decade-long stint on the West Coast — first as a member of the L.A.-based band Northstar Session, and later as a critically-acclaimed solo act — and moved to Nashville after recording his second album, Heart of My Hometown, with the late David Bianco (Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams). “I think it’s easy for artists to get on a soapbox and point fingers, complaining about all the problems in the world,” he adds, “but it’s a harder job to write a song that actually gets people who have complete opposite points of view to meet in the middle and talk through their differences. That’s one of the main goals I had for the songs on this album.”
Szlachetka on Youtube
“Old Soul”: https://youtu.be/DTBcxTPhPgU
“Bullet Through The Wind”: https://youtu.be/tojv3NEBJrk
“Cutting The Firelines”: https://youtu.be/wnYNJk7Sqfc
“Lifeboat”: https://youtu.be/DFlBcis6vnI
“Earthquake”: https://youtu.be/SYLmi-XdN20
“Let’s Run Away”: https://youtu.be/ga0n-o1Zwzc
On the Web
artist website: szlachetkamusic.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/szlachetkamusic
Youtube: www.youtube.com/szlachetkaofficial
Recent Press
“Earthquake” Feature In Rolling Stone: www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/rs-country-music-picks-devin-dawson-1045369/
“Old Soul” Feature In American Songwriter: americansongwriter.com/szlachetka-finds-a-warm-home-in-the-american-legion-hall-on-old-soul/
“Old Soul” Feature In Guitar World: www.guitarworld.com/news/from-big-warm-instrumental-hugs-to-returning-aussie-rock-heroes-here-are-this-weeks-essential-guitar-tracks