Recent News
June 14, 2010
Schofield Scores With Fans & Critics At Inaugural U.S. Show
They say he is "...one of the most distinctive and innovative players to have emerged on the blues scene for several generations...", "ranked in the top ten of british blues guitarists of all time" and they seem to be undoubtedly right, at least according to the critic in attendance at Schofield's U.S. debut performance: "...I am ready to get out and see Matt Schofield again anytime soon. A tremendous show and a lot of sound coming from just three guys. Mostly original material, but he did toss out a nice take on Freddie King's "Woman Across the River" and "Black Cat Bone" was part of two-three song encore that took the show well past midnight... Matt is a helluva good guitarist that he doesn't need comparisons with anybody."
December 07, 2009
MATT SCHOFIELD TO RELEASE INSTRUCTIONAL GUITAR DVD WITH HAL LEONARD CORP.
Hal Leonard Corporation, the world’s largest music print publisher, has signed a deal to create an instructional guitar DVD featuring Matt Schofield for release this coming summer. 

Hal Leonard VP of Pop & Standard Publications Jeff Schroedl was compelled to contact Schofield after hearing his music on a drive. “I was listening to Sirius and a track of Matt’s came on. I literally had to pull my car over and devote my full attention to listening to him play. He’s far and away the most exciting guitarist to come around in the last ten to 15 years.”

Schofield, whom the L.A. Daily News calls “the best blues guitarist from any country in decades,” was equally enthusiastic about the project. “When I started to teach myself the guitar, the first book I had was the Hal Leonard Guitar Method, ”comments Schofield, who began playing at age 11. “It’s amazing how life has come full circle. I was determined even at a young age to be a guitarist, but never conceived of being in a position where other guitarists would want to learn from me. It’s a great honor to be working with Hal Leonard.”

November 02, 2009
Matt Schofield Joins Entourage!
Matt Schofield, widely regarded as one of the most distinctive and innovative blues guitarists to have emerged on the world scene for several generations, will be represented by Entourage Talent outside of the UK & Europe, paving the way for Schofield to tour North America and Asia. The LA Daily News raves that in "Schofield, the UK has produced the best blues guitarist from any country in decades," while Guitarist Magazine calls him "The UK’s most exciting blues guitar player."

Since releasing his first album in 2004 Schofield has played in 12 countries around Europe and in Canada.

Artist Biography
Born in Manchester UK in 1977, Matt was immersed in the blues from a young age thanks to his Dad’s record collection. A professional guitarist from age 18 Schofield left it relatively late to start his own recording career, choosing first to learn his trade as a sideman, initially with bandleader and harp player Lee Sankey. He then spent four years with British Blues Diva and David Bowie prodigy Dana Gillespie, touring the UK, Europe and as far a field as India.

Seven years into life as a pro, he formed his own band - a trio - with Hammond organist, Jonny Henderson and drummer, Evan Jenkins (now with BBC Jazz Award winner, Neil Cowley). The trio was unconventional in having no bass player, bass duties being handled on the Hammond organ, a format favoured over the years by American bluesmen such as Albert King and Jimmie Vaughan.

The result was The Trio, Live, an eight-track taster of things to come. For what was a low budget, off-the-cuff and all-covers recording it elicited high praise along with airplay on both sides of the Atlantic and a BBC Radio 2 live session.

With his two subsequent releases (05’s Siftin' Thru Ashes and 07’s Ear To The Ground) Schofield consolidated his sound, delivering a powerful mix of Blues and New Orleans funk unlike anything else on the block. It was hard to pigeon-hole a band that could mine a deep blues trench one minute, effortlessly pull off a Meters anthem the next and then just as successfully revitalise the sixties Box Tops song, The Letter.

Fast forward to May, 2009 and Schofield’s third studio recording Heads, Tails & Aces. This time Schofield has a bass player and an album with a greater focus on blues. Gone are the interspersed instrumental funk tracks that characterised previous albums and led some commentators to label Schofield as much jazz, as blues. In their place is an entirely song-based album, with nine of the eleven tracks written or co-written by Schofield.

The breadth of material on this album is impressive, spanning everything from the smouldering Malaco-like soul groove of War We Wage, to the eccentric back-beat driven Betting Man and the Jazz-tinged Nothing Left, the latter lulling the listener into relaxed mood before climaxing in a tension-drenched extended outro.

Schofield's seamless playing has always embodied the great stylistic moments of American blues guitar, but the two cover versions on this latest album - interpretations of Freddie King's Woman Across The River and Elmore James' Stranger Blues - make any comparisons irrelevant. Underpinned by Jonny Henderson's constantly empathetic keyboards, Schofield stamps his own style on proceedings, slamming into solos that burn with an intensity rarely heard these days and even more rarely in combination with such a technically fluid and melodic approach.