The Drop In feat. Matt Beck (Touring Member of Matchbox 20) with Special Guest Damsel

City Winery NYC presents The Drop In feat. Matt Beck (Touring Member of Matchbox 20) w/Special Guest: Damsel live on Monday, October 14th, 2024, at 7:30

The Drop In is a bi-monthly concert series hosted by Alan Stevens Hewitt (bass/voc/etc) along with an all-songwriter core band comprising Noel Carey (keys/voc/etc) and Everet Almond (dms/voc/etc). Each installment, a special guest “drop-in” songwriter is invited to join the band. The “rule": each band member premieres at least one new and/or never publicly performed original song. For this installment (#5) The Drop In is thrilled to welcome Matt Beck, long-time touring member of Matchbox Twenty and Musical Director for Rob Thomas solo. This will be Matt’s first time performing his own original music live with a band in NYC in over 10 years!

After establishing himself as an in-demand sideman in NYC, Matt joined singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb’s band Nine Stories and spent the next few years touring as her guitarist/keyboardist. Not long after, Matt caught the attention of Matchbox Twenty, who was looking for a multi-instrumentalist for their forthcoming tour. Matt wound up playing keyboards, guitar, pedal steel and mandolin for Matchbox Twenty’s “More Than You Think You Are" tour and went on to play on all subsequent tours as well as joining Matchbox Twenty in the studio for their album “Exile On Mainstream”. Also, Matt was asked by Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas to be his musical director for his solo project he was embarking on. Matt has recorded and toured with Rob Thomas’ solo project as his M.D./guitarist/keyboardist from its inception to now. During a Matchbox Twenty/Rob Thomas hiatus, Matt was hand-picked to join Rod Stewart’s band for his “Still The Same” tour playing keyboards and guitar. Other artists Matt has had the pleasure of recording/touring with are Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani, Rosanne Cash as well as playing guitar for the Broadway shows of Bono and The Edge (Spider Man), Sting (The Last Ship) and Carole King (Beautiful). He currently holds the Guitar 1 chair on the Tony Award Winner for Best Musical “The Outsiders”

Matt’s album “Anything Which Gives You Pleasure”: https://open.spotify.com/album/5gPNYf0ua8zFjSujIcGMwv?si=Ydbnz9hnTEOMYGIMbKMcCQ

Website: https://mattbeckmusic.com/#footer

Damsel doesn’t apologize. The indie-folk duo integrates their background as classical chamber musicians with folk music leanings to create an intricate instrumental sound around tight vocal harmonies. The singing-songwriting team is Monica Mugan on vocals/guitar/ukulele and Beth Meyers on vocals/viola/banjo/ukulele. Their sound has been compared to The Milk Carton Kids, First Aid Kit, This Is The Kit and The Story/Jonatha Brooke. Damsel’s second album, ‘New to You,’ featuring Jason Treuting on drums, Florent Ghys on bass and Dan Trueman on hardanger fiddle was released in October 2021. ‘New to You’ and debut album ‘Just Sit So’ are streamable on all platforms and available via Bandcamp https://damselduo.bandcamp.com/

Pulitzer Prize winning Irish poet and former New Yorker editor, Paul Muldoon, had this to say of Damsel’s debut album, ‘Just Sit So’: “The surface of a Damsel song may be sweet and sonorous, but what’s going on under the surface is more often than not spiked and steely. That’s just one reason I love this CD.”

Alan Stevens Hewitt is co-writer of internationally acclaimed cult favorite rock musical LIZZIE, which has had over 100 productions in 8 languages in 12 countries across 4 continents. www.alanstevenshewitt.com

Noel Carey is co-writer of the Broadway musical Death Becomes Her, which opens at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre October 23. He is also the co-creator, with Julia Mattison, of the Webby Award-winning Comedy Central series Brooklyn Sound.

Everet Almond is a prolific songwriter, drummer, and multi-instrumentalist, staff composer for Google’s YouTube Music Library, and has played drums for Richard Marx, The Steve Miller Band, and Bryan Scary. Bandcamp: https://everetalmond.bandcamp.com/music