About this Event
Charlotte, NC based songwriter, musician, and singer Matthew Alexander’s seventh solo album, Soul River, peaked at #11 on the Folk Alliance International Album Chart for November 2020, with “Steel Rail Blues” reaching #3 on its Song Chart the month before. By then, however, the pandemic had forced him to slow down and sharpen his focus on his craft. A songwriting prodigy, distinctive guitar stylist, and younger product of the Cambridge-Boston folk scene of the 1960s, Alexander has performed for decades. As a solo artist and as founding member of the folk-trio Moonshine, he opened in the early seventies for Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, and Billy Joel.
Alexander’s October 2022 single, “An Apolitical Man,” provided the first of three advance singles from his eighth album, Midnight Dream Station, slated for a May 19, 2023, release on Caravan Records. “An Apolitical Man” debuted at #15 on the Music Meeting Directory Singles Chart for October 4, 2022. The same day Americana Highways premiered the video for the song. AH Editor Melissa Clarke wrote: The song echoes shades of the Bangles in its degree of playfulness over a serious critique.”
“While in quarantine, I had the opportunity to dig deeply into my music and channel my fears of “non-being” into creating a body of work that I felt would endure. I started doing vocal exercises every day, rehearsing six hours at a time and challenging myself to write songs that were more universal and complex lyrically. Whereas my previous output of songs had been one every year or two, all of a sudden, I was flooded with ideas resulting in 30 new songs being written in the space of six months.”
Many of these tunes have made their way onto Midnight Dream Station. Standout songs such as “An Apolitical Man”, “A Mourning Song”, “Moonshine”, "Love Was" and “On a Perfect Day” address pressing issues such as alienation, loss, and the value of human connection. Alexander's newest song "The Upside of Down" was enthusiastically received during its premiere at the 2022 International Resiliency Conference, streamed to an audience of more than 10,000 attendees from 49 countries!
Rob McHale is a North Carolina Songwriter whose songs can take you down a dirt road, through a small town, or on an historical journey - and bring you back home again.
Rob’s songs feature some of our greatest musical and Folk Legends, Woody Guthrie, Bluesman Robert Johnson, NASCAR Legend Junior Johnson and his ’40 Ford Coupe, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Pirate Anne Bonny, North Carolina Legend Tom Dooley, and many others.
Rob performs in the US and Internationally sharing these songs and stories at a range of venues, including telling the Legend of Tom Dooley at the Happy Valley Fiddler’s Convention.
Rob was awarded Folk Artist of the Year 2019 and Folk Album of the Year 2019 by the International Music and Entertainment Association and in 2021 was featured on the cover of legacy music magazine “ Musik and Sich “, Berlin, Germany.
“On October 25, 2019 I was personally convinced of the power of his songs when I saw him live” Wolfgang Geise, Music and Such Magazine, Berlin, Germany
"Music of a hundred years ago, from yesterday or today - whenever you place them, the songs of Rob McHale should be taught in school, because they reflect vibrant history, the value of tradition and living social comment. Tom Franks, Folk World Magazine, London England
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson Street, Charlotte, United States
USD 10.00 to USD 12.00