Matt Stevens :: Ghost

I first became acquainted with Matt Stevens through the staggering debut single of The Fierce & the Dead, Part 1. That track was a monolithic gauntlet that not only showed off Stevens’ wide spectrum of interests, influences and knowledge, but also his enviable skills as a player and composer. It’s quite the introduction.

I highly recommend you go say hello to it. I did. And I still do. Frequently. And it always has something new to say.

Ghost {out tomorrow} is another introduction, to a whole other side of Stevens. That’s not to say it’s such a wild departure {it is primarily acoustic … } that it comes across like it sprung from the head and fingers of a totally different person, or someone suffering from a split personality {I’ll let you know if I hear otherwise}. There’s nothing fragmented about his work.

The more time I spend with Ghost the more I hear and feel Stevens’ fingerprints on The Fierce & the Dead. At first listen, they may seem worlds apart, and in many cases, may be. But one shores up the other, and vice-versa: there’s something about the otherworldly and poignant Lake Man that makes me hear echoes of Part 1. When I got Ghost I was reminded of two other guitarists I truly admire and their solo outings, Glenn Jones and Ronnie Montrose. Not for how Ghost sounds, but for the reason I mentioned above: one set of works compliments the other. Glenn’s solo platters aren’t a complete contrast to his output with Cul de Sac, but they do spotlight some things about his work that may have taken a back seat at times to Cul de Sac’s mission. And after years of putting out intergalactic chrome-plated guitar fireworks, Montrose dropped the acoustic Bearings, that did for him much what this does for Stevens, in my opinion. The playful, pastoral track Glide may stand in pretty stark contrast to the mighty presence of Part 1., but you can’t have day without night. Or shadows with no light. Stevens’ work is of a whole, even if it doesn’t appear to be on the surface, or with a cursory spin. I would hazard a guess that Stevens isn’t so much seeking to distance his “solo” work from The Fierce & the Dead through opposites, but rather create a complete mission statement by showing all sides … by being … complete. Inclusive.

I was trying to describe Ghost to someone and I said “sparkly and vibrant.” And I think it is, in the best of ways. To me there is an inherent crispness to acoustic work, but that crispness isn’t just in the sound, it’s in his playing and composing. Give the great Big Sky a spin, or Eleven and Burnt Out Car and I think my point becomes clearer once you hear Stevens speak for himself. It can very easily exist in the category of a “musician’s musician’s” record, but it doesn’t carry that whiff of superiority or aloofness that keeps it out of the reach of the musically challenged out here. I’m certainly not a musician, but I can certainly enjoy Ghost on my own personal level even if I’m not sure how hard it was to get there, or how much love and sweat, went into it. Stevens has made a record that is as approachable, inviting and warm every bit as much as The Fierce & the Dead are powerful, intelligent and … commanding … .

I was over the moon when I was introduced to The Fierce & the Dead. Then I got Ghost and that made me go back to Part 1. and approach it with different receptors wide open. Now I’m going to do the same. In the other direction. Tell me that’s not a bargain.

Stevens is nothing if not prolific. With The Fierce & the Dead, his Sunday Free Noodle {available on iTunes for subscription}, a formidable Interwebs presence and now Ghost, it’s pretty clear Stevens is here to stay, has the chops to see it out and is a DIY juggernaut. You can judge for yourself the level of successes for his projects up against your own rules, but you can’t argue that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, or that he doesn’t have, if not a vision, a drive to keep moving. And I would think that’s a requirement when you create two distinct projects with “ghost” and “dead” in their names sound so very much alive.

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