This Saturday, December 13 at Ginger’s Tavern, local piano man and Halifax music alum Matt Reid releases his new CD, Letters (with Ruth Minnikin and Laura Peek. 10:30pm, $5). His band features Kristina Parlee of The Maynards on bass and vocal harmonies, Dean Gallant on guitars, and Reid’s brother-in-law Luke Goguen on the drums. He gets similar help from his friends on the recording. “Laura Peek does some vocal harmonies, Rich Aucoin adds vibraphone and tympani, Rachael Schwartz from The Got To Get Got plays cello, and David Cieplinski appears on saxophone! Dexter Doolittle also programmed some beats for one of the tracks,” says Reid. “And of course my wife Rachelle sings the last track, so that our parents and other relatives have something to listen to after skipping through the rest of the album. Seriously though, it's actually a pretty cool recording---the most over-the-top, Spector-eque ballad I've ever written.” Reid has had a lot of experience writing complex, introspective songs, as the frontman for the arty Confidence Band and Death By Nostalgia. This new solo incarnation is a perfect mixture of his earlier confessional work and a fresher, poppier sound. “After Death By Nostalgia I was doing some solo piano shows and verging on 30---I decided to try writing more poppy, mature songs with an emphasis on singing. I experimented with some orchestral pop touches on this record, and for the first time I've left out the instrumentals, but the album still has a few of my typical art-rock moments,” says Reid. “I'm also a musical pack-rat. Two of the tracks on Letters are actually Confidence Band numbers, and two others are Death By Nostalgia tracks that never made it to disc. (One of the latter actually performed with Rod Affleck and Spencer Cantley from DBN) I also have a few swears on the album, so it's kind of like old times in that regard.” Letters certainly lives up to the title, with most of the lyrics reading like a correspondence with an unknown subject. “The title track makes reference to a series of unanswered e-mails to another musician, but 'letters' sounded more romantic. It also seemed a convenient way to tie in the different songs, as if the album was really a series of anonymous messages to different people,” says Reid. “I tend to mull over song ideas while watching other bands perform, or while going on long walks. The lyrics themselves are usually inspired by only the most soap-opera-like events in my life, with important details left out or changed for more mystery. I'm proud of this body of songs and would like to keep sharing it with others, perhaps even on a few out of town gigs like old times. A lot of the classic musicians in town (I'm not labeling myself as such) seem to be enjoying a second wind and making music again with less pressure or expectation. I find it very comforting and inspiring.”
