Hi folks,
I'm really excited to write that my new album,The Mississippi Gospel Sessions is now available on all streaming platforms to listen to. You can also now purchase CDs and vinyl of the record online. This album was made in Water Valley, Mississippi at Dialback Sound in February, 2026. It includes Angelica Vendetti on fiddle, Burns Stanfield on piano/organ and Matt Patton on bass. It was produced by Starlin Browning and mastered by TJ Wenzl.
Here are some links to connect you to the record:
If you'd like to purchase a CD or vinyl copy of the album, you can do so by clicking this link.
We'll be celebrating the release of the album on September 26th (Sat.) at 5 PM at the Fourth Presbyterian Church at 340 Dorchester Street in South Boston. The concert is free and we'll have some special guests joining us and free pizza after the concert. I also have a bunch of great gigs coming up that you can find more info about at www.mattyorksongsandstories.com.
Below I ramble a bit about how this album came to be.
In 2023, on my birthday, I had the opportunity to perform on NBC's Today in Nashville television show to promote a concert I was doing at City Winery (you can watch the video here if you'd like)
I was in Nashville performing the songs of the Highwaymen and talking about the book I'd written about them. The night before the taping of the TV show, I found out that I couldn't perform any songs by the band because I didn't have written permission and it was network television. I knew that if a song was over a hundred years old, it went into the public domain and anybody could use it. I performed the old gospel hymn “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” that was written in 1908.
I ended up going down a rabbit hole of listening to a bunch of old southern gospel records. Johnny Cash made five gospel records, Willie made four and so many of their peers also made them. It became all I listened to and I sought out a church near me that had Gospel music. I'd never been a church-goer but ended up at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Southie because it was the first one that popped up when I Google'd Gospel music in Boston. Since then, I've performed regularly at church. Our co-pastor Burns Stanfield has run the church for over thirty years and is a master musician. My girlfriend Angelica Vendetti is a master of her craft on fiddle. Eventually we decided to travel to Dialback Sound in Mississippi to record these songs that we'd performed in church and at concerts.
Our experience in Water Valley, Mississippi was wonderful and the studio had all this old equipment that really made the record sound more like it was recorded in the 1950's than in 2026. I've made a lot of records through the years and, in a million years, never could have imagined that I'd record an album of old gospel songs, but I'm really proud of how the record come out and I hope you'll taken a listen to it.
I'm done rambling!
https://mattyorkboston.bandcamp.com/album/the-mississippi-gospel-sessions