For as long as Milwaukee Record has been a thing (and a few years before that, even) Jay Matthes has been a fixture in southeast Wisconsin music. The veteran singer-songwriter plays more than 100 shows annually. Those outings range from a wealth of festivals and neighborhood music series, high-profile support slots for known national acts, headlining sets in clubs and cafes, performances in bars and backyards spread throughout the Midwest, and sets in virtually every other imaginable place where a musician could conceivably play.
At this point, Matthes has been doing it for so long (and so often) that it’s only natural that his life on stage sometimes creeps into his material itself. On August 25, Matthes will release Loved And Lost And Found. He’ll mark the release of the album—his first full-length since 2017’s Dancing After Dark—with a show at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery. Prior to that co-release show with Milwaukee’s own Listening Party, Matthes put out a single and accompanying music video that looks back at the artistic experiences that brought him to where he is today.
“In A Song” features self-referential lyrics about post-show conversations with bar regulars, questions about singing about things like drinking and love gone wrong, and the way his life has a tendency to make its way into his songs. In addition to crisp visuals of Matthes and his backing band playing the new single live at Dandy, the video features live footage of the well-traveled troubadour that was shot at a variety of past performances through the years.
Between the singalongable Americana anthem with a country tinge, the song’s retrospective concept, and the great video directed by Alex Walzak, “In A Song” finds Matthes as good as ever. Before his Friday, August 25 release show at Anodyne, check out the video now.