A new name to me, Joe Matera hails from the far sunnier shores of Australia and is quite the guitar hero … and one who seems to move in some pretty cool circles. Having spotted our review of the recent Sweet tour, Joe got in touch to promote his forthcoming album “Terra Firma” as the lead off track, “Shining Star”, features Pete Lincoln form The Sweet on bass.
“Shining Star” is dedicated to Joe’s wife, and lyrically is a nice love song. However, it veers away from the usual, saccharine sweet ballad and is musically a very upbeat almost poppy track. You can hear the melody in Joe’s playing – neat chord structures, a classy solo and some very cool overdubbed guitar parts over the closing bars. In a way, another guitar playing Joe is brought to mind – in particular the “Flying in a Blue Dream” album. Like Satch, perhaps the voice is not quite on the same level as the guitar playing but within the context of the songs it works brilliantly to showcase the songwriting. The album focuses on the guitar playing, featuring only three vocal tracks and is the result of year of intense ups and downs for the man who has played with the likes of Steve Harley.
See the video here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJIhOoqf1n8
Joe Matera regularly tours in Europe (in fact last year played in Bolton – I wish I’d known!) and has another tour coming up – dates and details of “Terra Firma” can be found on his website.
More details can be found at www.joematera.com
“Terra Firma” was released in Europe on January 24th via W.A.R. Productions
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