Dirt Road Opera

Country

Dirt Road Opera is a Canadian alt country/roots band from Kelowna, BC. Its three core members, songwriter and guitarist Barry Mathers, vocalist Rachel Matkin, and bass player Jim Ryan, had played together before, most notatbly in The Cruzeros.

Their combined influences include the likes of Steve Earle, John Prine, Gillian Welch, and many others, but their sound is uniquely their own.

Mathers, the primary songwriter for the group, traces his "aha" moment of deciding he wanted to be a musician all the way back to seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. A drummer at the time, Mathers still speaks highly of Ringo Starr and considers him a major influence. The shared musical taste of the band members for writers of the Earle and Prine ilk, and a lineup of curious musicians looking to create a unique sound, has resulted in a process of evolution that has reached its zenith with the group's first album, Nowheresville. A perfect name for a record that takes an alternative, but very real, look at what surrounds people in places.

So whether you call them alt country, or roots, or Americana, at the end of the day they are a group of talented musicians who have played togeter in different bands for years, and who have created a whole new sound, crafted some really good songs, and headed out in a whole new direction.