Matt Mitchell Music Co. / BR Lively

Centered around the old-soul, observational storytelling of Matt Mitchell, who lives full time out of an imported Japanese bus, MMMC brings Mitchell’s tunes to life in solo, acoustic duo/trio and full on, electrified band configurations. Mitchell’s songs are equal parts clever, quick-witted and heartbreakingly confessional, (oftentimes all at once) translating well both in attentive listening rooms and rowdy rock halls. If ‘The Band’ took a road trip to Laurel Canyon and pulled their tour bus over to pick up John Prine hitching his way down the pacific coastline, their rolling jam sessions might sound a little like Matt Mitchell Music Co.

“With the oppressive heat and an especially tantalizing 24-hour news cycle, it’s worth taking a moment or two to just breath. So while neither we nor the artists we curate can claim to be mindfulness experts, we feel like today’s feature is pretty fitting for anyone in need of a mindset shift. It comes courtesy of Austin multi-instrumentalist-singer-songwriter Bryan Richard Blaylock (better known as B.R. Lively), whose well…livelihood….lies roughly within the boundaries of folk, outlaw country, southern R&B, and jazz. Lyrically Lively derives a lot from literature, but rest assured, his tunes aren’t so high brow that they’re inaccessible to the layperson. Lively first crested over the horizon with his debut Into the Blue in 2017, and tracked a companion piece fast in the aftermath. Well after nearly a half decade of solo touring across the US, Lively’s back in Austin and eager to unleash those counterpart recordings from their hard drive confines. Where Lively considers Into the Blue as an introspective, melancholic inhale, his sophomore follow-up People completes the process of aural respiration with an exhalation of poignant wisdom, emotional growth, and realistic optimism; a Yin to Into the Blue‘s Yang. Co-produced by Band of Heathens collaborator Gordy Quist, mixed by Robert Ellis/Khruangbin engineer Steve Christensen, and arranged by string-and-horn visionary Thomas Avery.” – Jack Anderson (KUTX)