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Artist
Matt & Shannon Heaton
12+ albums
celticfolktraditionalirish
about
Matt & Shannon Heaton blend Irish traditional music with original songwriting. An unusual blend of material? Sure. But a natural one for this Boston-based husband-and-wife pair, who have played in Irish sessions for years, while becoming involved in Boston's rich songwriting scene. Matt's inventive guitar and bouzouki playing provides a rich framework for Shannon's timeless, evocative lyrics and her stunning Irish flute playing. Their masterfully-arranged songs move seamlessly from full harmony singing, to driving wood flute riffs, to lush guitar lines, creating a big, layered, modern sound. Like Richard Thompson or Nic Jones, the Heatons' music comes from a traditional aesthetic and a passion for strong traditional bones. The Boston-based duo has been performing together in various guises for over a decade, having released five CDs. Scott Alarik of The Boston Globe called "Blue Skies Above," their latest release and second CD as a duo, "masterful and inventive, their arrangements city-smart and spacious.. they bring a savvy modernity and American rootsiness to the auld Sod's music, without losing any of its folksy Irish essence." But Matt & Shannon didn't always perform great Irish music together. They met back in 1991 in Chicago via romance—albeit someone else's—when Shannon needed a guitar player to play at a wedding. She had been learning Irish music on the north side of Chicago, and Matt was studying classical guitar at Northwestern University (and playing with surf-p
