This week I looked into singer/songwriter Matt Wertz. He is originally from LaVale, MD, but he finds his home in Nashville, TN. He actually studied industrial design at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and developed his affinity for music while living in dorms with other students. He gained a large part of his initial fan base performing at Young Life camps. His first three albums, Somedays, Twentythree Places, and Everything in Between, were all self-released, and he has since released a fourth album under Universal Republic Records since his signing in 2007. This past January, he released his single Feels So Right for his album Weights and & Wings that was later released on March 15, 2011 (My birthday!). He also has done a lot of work with his best friend and fellow singer/songwriter Dave Barnes.
Wertz has toured with several other musicians such as Jon McLaughlin, Jason Mraz, and Gavin Degraw. His music has also been featured on the shows Brothers and Sisters, Wildfire, and One Tree Hill, as well as in the movies Employee of the Month and My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
To get my taste of Matt Wertz, I listened to Everything in Between and a few songs on Under Summer Sun.
Everything in Between
1) The Way I Feel
2) Carolina
3) Heartbreaker
4) Over You
5) 5:19
6) I Will Not Take My Love Away
7) Like the Last Time
8 ) With You, Tonight
9) Naturally
10) Capitol City
And the songs I listened to on Under Summer Sun were:
Everything’s Right
Red Meet’s Blue
Keep Faith
Summer Sun
Back in June
I enjoyed what I listened to for the most part. He has sound somewhat similar to Jon McLaughlin or Eric Hutchinson, sometimes seeming like a John Mayer meets Jason Mraz kind of artist. A few of the songs are really catchy. My favorites were probably Heartbreaker and Over You. Carolina is also a great one. Carolina is the song where you can definitely hear the John Mayer/Jason Mraz style, and the other two have a more electric feel, throwing them farther into the realm of pop (even though when I put his album into my iTunes, it classified the genre as folk-rock…). Listen to Heartbreaker below.
The only song that I really didn’t like was Summer Sun. I don’t know what it is, it just didn’t do it for me. Otherwise, I would recommend Matt Wertz. I won’t say he’s my favorite, but I could definitely listen to him fairly regularly.
Musical Moments 