MATT WERTZ:
What began with a homemade drum groove on Matt's front porch in Nashville sprang into a varied ten-song album that is equal parts a dip in the electric blue waters of the 80s and a testament to the artistic breadth Wertz has developed at this point in his career. The year was 1987. Reagan was in the White House, Bill Cosby was the king of Thursday nights, Dirty Dancing was selling out theaters. And on stereos across America, singer-songwriters like Bryan Adams, Richard Marx, and Kenny Loggins were rocking the airwaves with hits that would go on to do the near impossible: cater to popular demand and stand the test of time. It was 1987, and Matt Wertz was an eight-year-old kid in Liberty, Missouri. He went to Louis and Clark Elementary, he took piano once a week from his Nana, he rode shotgun in his mom's Oldsmobile station wagon. And on those lucky afternoons when he could tune in to Casey's Top 40, Wertz listened to songs that would become the soundtrack of an era – Don Henley's "Boys of Summer," Steve Winwood's "The Finer Things," Lionel Richie, Peter Cetera – classics set to drum machine and Stratocaster. He didn't know it then, but those radio waves were settling into Wertz's memory and slow-curing his own songwriter sensibility. And after a decade of commercial success, seven studio albums and thousands of miles touring, they were the songs Matt found himself going back to over and over again – "Footloose," "Mandolin Rain," "Hold on to the Nights" – music that was flat-out fun to listen to. Those hours of rediscovery inspired Matt Wertz to create his newest and most ambitious project to date, Heatwave. What began with a homemade drum groove on his Nashville front porch has sprung into a distinct, varied ten-song record that both pays homage to the lush, accessible sounds characteristic of that era and evidence the breadth of artistic reach Wertz has come to embody at this point in his career.
DAVE BARNES:
When Dave Barnes first showed up on the music scene 12 years ago, he was the guy hitting the college circuit with limitless energy and an equally unrestrained expectation for the future. There were songs to be penned, tours to be booked and a whole world of experiences to be seized.

Since then, the singer-songwriter has written and released seven albums, played hundreds of cities each year, received Grammy and CMA nominations for Blake Shelton's cut of his song "God Gave Me You," become a father and formed deeper relationships in the industry than his 23-year-old self could have dared hope.
Turning 35 this year, Barnes is in a season of both nostalgia and reality about what it means to be a traveling musician, and those reflections have become the life and breath of his eighth full-length release, Golden Days. "It kind of tells a story of beginning something, where you are now and, as the season changes, the things you look back on," he says.