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Matt Besey: Best Blues Band & Blues Guitarist Winner Talks About His Long Anticipated Follow-up CD
By Scott Baker For Saginaw's Matt Besey, the guitarist doesn't have to look too far for friends and well-wishers who know that when they are in the presence of Matt and a guitar something magical can and will happen.
When asked for a ball park figure on his wins over the years, Besey just laughed and figured he'd have to dig through a box full to get a rough estimate. "I got two this year," stated the guitarist during a phone interview last week. "It's flattering to be recognized. I don't take it as seriously as some people do. Some people like to take that stuff pretty seriously. It feels good to know that there's somebody listening, but I don't exactly base my life around that kind of recognition, you know. I've seen people campaign and hand out stacks of Reviews. I've won in different categories, but I know the Blues Guitar one I've probably received for seven or eight years. I don't know for certain." On the eve of a brand new album, his sophomore effort titled Prisoner; Besey was set to feature the majority of the new album during the Review Awards in front of his fans, friends, and peers. Unfortunately, that's not how it worked out and he had to settle on some good 'ole fashioned blues covers. Long time drummer Mark Dault and Besey were both short their bassist, Mark Miller. "That was pretty cool, huh," Besey quipped. "I wasn't a really happy camper that night. Eric Markley -he came up and saved our asses that night. He was right there and was like, "I've got a bass guitar if you need me.' I was like, well, let's give it a couple of more minutes. See if Mark would show or not. So Eric just ran up and did it. I'm thanking God somebody was there. We were going to pretty much do all the new stuff predominantly, but that didn't happen." As for Prisoner, it was recorded in Nashville and mixed in Missouri over the course of a year or so. A very long time in the waiting, Besey knows his fans have been itching for an album since his self-titled 1997 debut.
"Right now, we're
looking at a couple of months, maybe," said Besey on the release date. "I
know I said that six months ago. This album has been pretty much done
since the first of November." Having previewed a few select tracks on Larry McCray's radio show in Owosso (WJSZ 92.5, The Castle) a month ago, long-time Besey fans will not be disappointed. "I was real happy with how this turned out (and) with some of the cats that we got to work with," said the guitarist. "Everybody was real top-notch and really cool. It just worked out really good." "Malcolm Springer - he's a bad boy. He did Matchbox Twenty's first album, he did Collective Soul, he had a whole list and he's only a couple of years older than me, like 33-34." With Springer behind the mix, Besey recorded the album at former Allman Brothers Band keyboardist Johnny Neel's studio in Nashville and features the blind keyboard great on many tracks as well. "Some of those songs, like the title track (Prisoner) has been around forŠJesusŠI wrote that not too long after I moved in where I'm living now, like three years ago. There's maybe three songs (from) the last six months or so. There was one actually (I) was writing when we were there."
"But yeah, it's good to finally, I mean this has been going on for several years. You know, trying to keep a band together, obviously the bass player troubles I've had (and) just trying to get the money together to do this. Some things we were paying what originally my whole budget was going to be for one increment, you know. I was looking at doing it on a lot smaller scale, a lot cheaper. But I'm thinking even if it costs us a little more, it's definitely worth it. I mean, just to hang out with Johnny Neel was cool." Watch for a feature on Matt Besey which will run in the months ahead, preceding the release of Prisoner.
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