Nobody’s happy — but it’s home in Billy Matheny’s musical world
THE CD: “Rockabilly Music” (BMI)
THE PERFORMER: Billy Matheny
Ever wonder what would have happened if Glen Frey and the rest of the Eagles had strangled Don Henley and replaced him with Elvis Costello? No, this is not a ridiculous Harry Turtledove novel where the aliens show up and Adolph Hitler manages the Jackson Five.
But it is basically what you get with Morgantown boy singer/songwriter Billy Matheny.
The messages are familiar. The backwater world is paradoxically a strange paradise and a desperate hell. Nobody is really happy, but it’s home.
Matheny plays a dizzying array of instruments including acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro and keyboards. Busy hands are happy hands. He offers up some nice bombastic alt country, plus honest or awkward songs about booze, women, truckstops and other sacred icons of the country hipster.
— By Bill Lynch
