Singer Matt Burke

 More about Matt Burke and his career as a singer and a songwriter in the interview that follows:

To sum things up, Matt Burke is an established singer and songwriter. He is born and raised in Nashville, and one of his latest singles, "Missed My Chance," premiered in September 2020. Matt has a signature brand that encompasses old-school outlaw country music. Matt most certainly can call himself a member of the classic country resurgence, which the genre has been seeing less and less throughout the last decade.

The new single "Missed My Chance" is an ode to drinking your heartaches and having such a good time that you forget all about your heartaches in the first place. Matt, who's been in the Matt Burke Band for the better part of the last ten years, has stated recently that he wants to refocus his career and become a solo artist.

Today we get a chance to talk to Matt about his classic country sound and where does it come from, and what gives it flavor. 

So tell us, how has your life been living in Nashville for the past year? How is the music industry in Nashville after the outbreak hit?

It's frankly been a bit strange after the whole pandemic thing happened. A lot of places have stayed closed for this whole time, and most stages are still currently empty. For the few gigs that do remain, it's pretty much guaranteed that no more than 40-50% of the capacity that usually visits it is allowed. Everyone is also masked up, and the whole ordeal makes no the best "feel good" kind of a vibe in the building. But I'm still grateful that I have my work, but gigs have become quite less frequent than before, but I can't complain. Everyone is suffering these days.

On the positive side of things, I've been lucky enough to partake in a lot of online collaborations and have seen a lot of other folks in the town who've shifted their efforts to online collaboration and songwriting, so that's a plus, in my view. All in all, 2020 was a productive year for me, that's for sure.

Your close friend and musical partner, Leona Ellis, passed a couple of years ago. I want to offer my condolences ask you how the loss affected your music and songwriter since she passed?

I was so grateful to have Leona in my life. To begin with, we grew up together in the band programs while touring central Florida. She was a really talented musician. After I moved back to Florida six years ago, my goal initially was to build up The Matt Burke Band the best I could, and Leona just happened to show up out of nowhere and became a very important bandleader, player, collaborator, and most importantly a friend.

Losing her was very hard. She was the gull that held the band together. After she passed, there didn't seem to be any reason to keep the band together, so we decided to part ways. May she rest in peace.