The Man Matheny

Billy Matheny & the Frustrations
Born of Frustration
Gyroscope Records, 2006

Born of Frustration, the new release from Billy Matheny and the Frustrations, is forty rock solid minutes of good old American rock n’ roll. With each track Matheny moves from rock to folk to country to punk, leaving the listener with twelve tracks chock full of grit, twang and pop sensibility.

Backed by a contingent of musicians spread over nearly incarnation of the Frustrations, Matheny has at his disposal nearly every tool needed to bring his songs to fruition. The standout contributor is Haley Slagle whose soulful voice graces a number of the album’s strongest tracks such as the duet, “I Hope I Don’t See You Today”, and the Slagle-sung closer, “Reckless”. The later evoking the feelings of a lonely broken hearted night spent driving around listening to Patsy Cline fade in and out on AM radio. Thematically, the soured relationship permeates the album, but the songs come off neither whiney nor overly melodramatic. More than anything, like so many other songs which hold a place our hearts, the listener is never left pondering where Matheny falls into the equation: the songs aren’t about him. They’re about you.

The two dueling Matheny alter egos, the punk rock kid and the folksinger, both appear prominently on Born of Frustration. Whether the breakneck thrashing of “I Came In” to the up close and personal quiet folksiness of “Friday Night Alienation” Matheny seems equally at ease. The album’s standout track, “If You See Him Tonight”, bridges the two, by alternating effortlessly between twangy tear in your beer sentimentality and crashing distorted guitars. It is as if the man wants you to lend him your ear so he can draw you in close and deliver a punch to the gut. The end result is twelve tracks that engage and entertain the listener.

The harshest criticism that can be leveled at this record is that it’s strongest three tracks are buried at the very end, but that seems to be a trivial matter at best. The truth is that this is a real good piece of work and has the mark of a seasoned songwriter all over it. It could be very easy to view Born of Frustration as the end product of a period of growth and development for the man Matheny. But this ain’t the end folks. This is just the beginning.

Born of Frustration is available locally at the Den and Off Beat Music as well as online at CDBaby.com.

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