Local Tunes and Love of Guitars: A Casual Conversation with Matt Burt

Matt Burt and the Casual Acquaintances are a fixture at Apalachin's Ransom Steele Tavern. Walking into a local coffeehouse to meet with Matt Burt, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, I know just how to find him: “I look just like a guy in an Americana band!” Indeed, his debut album, an eponymous solo album, and his band's album This Is No Time for Power Tools, bears out that description nicely.

TRIPLE CITIES CAROUSEL: I understand you're from Apalachin. Is that where you were born?

MATT BURT: No, actually, I was born in Endicott. Then I grew up out in Colorado, and moved back here in the early eighties and lived in Apalachin for - good god - what're we looking at, 25 years now?

TCC: Wow!

MB: Yeah, indeed! It's great; it's a wonderful place to live!

TCC: What are your major influences?

MB: Drive-By Truckers is a real biggie - a huge influence, actually. Steve Earle always is a big one, Dwight Yoakam. Those are three real biggies.

TCC: How'd you meet your bandmates?

MB: Actually, Jack McKissick, who plays bass with me - we met through an online musicians' board. I was looking for a bass player, and he was looking for somebody to play with, and we got talking on the phone and pretty much started describing to each other, each other’s favorite bands. And I sat down and started playing with the guy and we just hit it off instantly. We probably played together just as a duo for maybe a year-and-a-half or so. Then a buddy of mine from work, Tim Riley, joined us on guitar. The three of us played together for a long time. When I did my second record, This Is No Time For Power Tools, out in Windsor at New Clear Studios with [engineer] Jeff Stachyra, Shaun Kanazawich came in, who I also knew from my day job played drums with us. And he's been playing drums at our live gigs ever since, pretty much. Tim had to leave - he moved back down to New Jersey about a year ago - and Steve Strauss took over the second guitar chair, another local singer-songwriter!

TCC: It's amazing how much talent we have in this area!

MB: Oh, man, across the board, everyplace I go, there are just good bands and good players everywhere! [I] go to Ransom Steele on any given night and I'm just down there seeing bands that are just knocking me out! Great songs, great players, great vibes! I know - it's pretty wonderful!

TCC: You have your own record label, Broken Oak Records.

MB: Yes, I do! That was started with myself and Dave Race, a buddy of mine who financed and got my first CD going, called Matt Burt; he’s an Austin [Texas] bass player. Another good friend of ours, Courtney Audain – actually, another bass player [who] played with Timbuk 3 for quite a few years - had a studio that we finished a lot of the tracks in on that first record. Dave and I have been running this ever since.

TCC: That's amazing - someone from Timbuk 3!

MB: Yeah, it is pretty wild! Courtney's quite a really interesting guy, man! He did some really cool stuff on the record!

TCC: I see from your Facebook page that you used one set of musicians for performing and another for making your latest CD.

MB: Yeah, that's really true. I mean, a couple of guys are just from out of town. A few of the guys, actually - Bob Carlucci played pedal steel on the record. He lives out in Candor. He's really good! He's in a couple of bands that are just playing all of the time. So he's just continually booked up. Every now and then we can get Gene Cothran to come out and play keyboards with us, and that's always a lot of fun, man! We always want to impress Gene, so we like it when [he] shows up and plays with the band. And a couple of the other guys happen to be some folks that I just kind of met through the grapevine. I needed a violin player, [and I] found this fellow, Darren Trass, from out in Oneonta. He came in and worked on one of the cuts. My buddy Hakan Hromek, who plays cello in the Binghamton Symphony, came and played on one of the cuts with me. So it was all a bunch of local people. Mick Antolak, another really good drummer, played on a few of the cuts also. So yeah, all local cats!

TCC: I also see by your Facebook page that you play a Rickenbacker guitar.

MB: Oh, that's wonderful, man! I love that Rickenbacker! That thing is a workhorse! When we did tracks for the very first record, it was in a small studio in Binghamton that didn't have any air conditioning. So, in order to get the place quiet, we had to just kind of board the place up, and it went to like about 98-104 degrees within moments. And this guitar never went out of tune! The Rickenbacker's just a great, great workhorse of a guitar, man. I take that one out with me as much as I can. I play that, and I usually play my Telecasters.

TCC: Ah, you're a Fender man too?

MB: Oh, I love 'em. I've got a bunch of Strats. I really like 'em a lot. I love my Rickenbacker. I've got a great Les Paul. I've got a lot of really nice guitars. But primarily man, I'm a Fender guy.

TCC: What are your band's plans for the future?

MB: Man, just keep trying to write more songs, we're hoping to get back in the studio someday. I've got a bunch more songs that I'd love to record, some new stuff I'd like to do with the guys, and we'll just keep doing gigs. I mean, we really just like to play music. Playing music's fun!

TCC: Well, if it isn't fun, why bother?

MB: Exactly! That's the one real saving grace about it all, man. I'm at an age, and where I live, I know I'm never gonna be famous, never gonna get the big record deal, so in a lot of ways it's just like - the pressure's totally off. So it's just about going out on gigs and having fun, man! Entertaining people. Give 'em a good show, man. Pump up the energy and have at it!

TCC: Indeed. As for the big time, never say never!

MB: Yes, well, I'm sure that's impossible yet improbable!

TCC: Is there anything else you'd like to cover before we wrap up?

MB: No, not really. I just love playing here, man, love where I live. It means a lot to me. People around Tioga County mean a lot to me. Looking at everything that's happened with us over the last 25 years has had a big impact on the kinds of songs that I write. And I just have a lot of respect for all of us and all these people who stayed, like the Libertys, who have taken their time and energy and have put in something so positive for our community. Something certainly for all of us as musicians, man, there's not a band that I run into that doesn't love playing at the Steele. I mean, to be treated with respect is a really rare thing as a musician.

My pro days were spent out in Colorado through the seventies and the early eighties, and I could probably name on one hand the number of club owners who actually showed up at the end of the night on time with money to pay us. The rest of the time you were driving around at three in the morning looking for the owner's girlfriend's house that's got green shutters on Maple Street somewhere so you could get paid. It's wonderful working with people who are really honorable and treat musicians with respect. And truly I just love the music. That makes it just such a great experience and it makes is so much fun to go play. And the crowds are there to listen. That really means a lot, I think, to any of us who write songs. You just want people to give your stuff a listen. A pretty wonderful thing. I'm a lucky guy!

Matt Burt and the Casual Acquaintances (plus his side project, No Soap Radio) can be heard at fine local establishments near you, including, yes, the Ransom Steele Tavern in Apalachin, NY on April 22nd at 8pm, opening for Two-Dollar Pistol. $10 cover. Matt's debut solo album can be found at cdbaby.com/cd/mattburt. His band's album, This Is No Time for Power Tools, can be found at gigs.