Matt Flinner

Video of the Week: "Raji's Romp" by the Matt Flinner Trio

By Theme Admin on June 14th, 2012 at 4:42 PM

This week's video comes from a show by the Matt Flinner Trio at the O.C. Tanner Amiptheater in Springdale, UT on June 2, 2012.  The tune, "Raji's Romp," was inspired by an interception and touchdown run by B.J. Raji of the Green Bay Packers a couple of years ago, which helped the Packers go on to the Superbowl by defeating the Chicago Bears.  I finally got around to writing my tune of the day after the game was over, and being a Packers fan, I was in a good mood. The tune was written for a show at Avogadro's Number in Ft. Collins, CO on Jan 23, 2011, and is featured on our "Winter Harvest" CD.  For more info or to order a copy, click here.   [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTy7_H4jOpg&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

"White River Junction" by the Matt Flinner Trio

By Theme Admin on June 7th, 2012 at 1:38 PM

This week I thought I'd introduce the "Music du Jour" project into the video of the week. As you may know, on most of the Matt Flinner Trio shows we write new music the day of the show to perform that night---basically one tune by each member of the trio, for three new tunes every night. I've been hesitant to add these new "du Jour" performances to our video channel, as I don't know what tunes will end up getting recorded on our CDs, and I'm not sure I want to end up with a CD full of material that is already out there on YouTube. Anyway, I liked this performance enough to give it a go. I wrote this tune while on the road between Richmond, VT to Putney, VT. After rejecting a few ideas, the idea for this tune seemed to take shape somewhere near White River Junction; hence the title. In our du Jour shows we're often trying to change things up to keep the material fresh and varied. I gave the main melody to the bass and then tried to pass it around a fair bit to vary the texture. Then in the middle, Ross and I trade solos and build up into the reprise of the B melody back into the bass melody---sort of a backwards version of the beginning. This video was made at the Next Stage Theater in Putney, VT on March 25, 2012 (the same day the tune was written).  We hope you enjoy it!   [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPM1UR0cdq8&feature=plcp[/youtube]

"Slapping Is Encouraged" by the Matt Flinner Trio

By Theme Admin on April 12th, 2012 at 5:22 PM

This week's video is a tune I wrote while we were in Santa Cruz, CA.  Eric Thorin is a versatile bassist, and I wanted to write a tune that exploit his slapping technique.  So this tune goes back and forth between the bass and mandolin, then bass and guitar, then bass and mandolin, etc.  I wrote "Slapping Is Encouraged" at the top of the chart as an instruction for Eric, and that ended up sticking as the title for the tune. We first played this at a house concert at Irene Herrmann's house in Santa Cruz as part of a "Music du Jour" tour.  Irene is a great classical musician as well as an old-time musician, and we were honored to play at her home for the wonderful folks in Santa Cruz. This video performance is from a show in Putney, VT at the Next Stage Theater on March 25, 2012.  Thanks to Barry Stockwell and all the Stockwell brothers for putting the show on.   [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO3FN_wRiaE&feature=plcp[/youtube]   We recorded this tune on our "Winter Harvest" CD.  To order a copy, click here.

"Wheels" by the Matt Flinner Trio

By Theme Admin on April 5th, 2012 at 5:36 PM

We're starting a regular Thursday video series this week.  Every Thursday a new video will be posted on the Matt Flinner Trio YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/mattflinnertrio), featuring performances by the Matt Flinner Trio, other groups Matt is involved in, and the occasional instructional video or other arcana. Our first video is a tune from the new Matt Flinner Trio CD, "Winter Harvest."  This tune, "Wheels," was written by Eric Thorin on March 20, 2009 at The Rail concert series in Lafayette, CO.  "Wheels" refers to a friend of Eric's who is always on the move---and this tune is a tribute to him! This performance is from a show in Putney, VT at the Next Stage Theater on March 25, 2012.  Thanks to Barry Stockwell for hosting the show.   [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h8C1xofusM&feature=plcp[/youtube]   To order a copy of "Winter Harvest," visit our online store.

New CD "Winter Harvest" due out Jan 31st

By Theme Admin on December 2nd, 2011 at 6:45 AM

The new Matt Flinner Trio CD, "Winter Harvest," will be released on Compass Records on January 31, 2012.  We're very excited about it!  If you'd like to hear sample tracks, visit the Compass Records website. "Winter Harvest" is a continuation of our "Music du Jour" project, which we started in 2006.  On most of our live gigs, each member of the trio (Ross Martin, Eric Thorin and Matt Flinner) writes one new piece of music the day of the show, and all three new compositions are debuted on that night's concert.  After the first few of these tours we recorded our "Music du Jour" CD for Compass Records.  Now, after about another 50 "du Jour" shows and about another 160 new tunes, we've recorded "Winter Harvest."  As on the "Music du Jour" CD, we've selected 12 tunes (after a long and torturous process of narrowing the tunes down to that many) that we feel represent a wide spectrum of what is possible in a bluegrass trio.  And if you order a physical copy of the CD (you can pre-order at Compass or you can get it here starting Jan 31), you'll get three bonus tracks that are not included in the digital download (we see this as part of the beauty of having too much material to choose from!).  Or you can come to one of our many upcoming live shows and buy a copy in person.   We'll be continuing our Music du Jour project on into 2012 and are excited to see where it takes us, both musically and geographically.  We hope to see you out there in the big wide world!   Click here to see upcoming tour dates.