The Gamble

"Kid gets a guitar, catches a bug, writes a few songs. Next thing he knows is, he's headed to Nashville with a dream in his head and a fire in his heart. Puts out a few songs, finds out the music industry is a big machine that doesn't give a damn about him." 

(Matt Jordan / YouTube, Oktober 14, 2022)

Matt Jordan came to Nashville in 2013 as a hopeful songwriter. The next year he released his forst EP "Nothing Like Home" containing 7 songs. But when the following years did not result in commercial success, he disappointedly turned his back on the music business and returned back home to Eureka, MO to start a family.

But the passion for music never really left his heart and so in 2019 he started self-releasing his own music. By 2022 he had accumulated a catalog of some 20 new songs, all produced by Sal Oliveri. The newest of which he has now put together with some unreleased ones comprising his first full length studio album. It's about time for his second chance in music!

A chance that naturally comes without guarantees. Which is why Matt Jordan decided to call the project "The Gamble". Even though the title track of the album actually talks about the gamble of love: I learned a lesson all too well, sometimes you're just born to lose. With this debut album he hopes to no longer be just that.

"I'm a Country/Heartland Rock singer and songwriter from Eureka, MO." That's how he describes himself in a nutshell on his YouTube channel. And anyone who has heard his voice and sound, will wholeheartedly agree. Or as Emma Jordan of entertainment-focus.com puts it: "Imagine being in the ‘80s listening to classic heartland rock, Springsteen vinyl hanging on the wall."

On 10 out of the 11 songs on the album Matt Jordan was involved as a songwriter. Only the mid-tempo 'Gaining Ground' was not written by him. The topic of the album circles around tales from small towns abound with love, heartbreak and nostalgia, such as in the first single 'Wrangler'.Which does not talk about a pair of jeans, but a Jeep Wrangler, that needs to be sold in order to being able to cover ever increasing living expenses. If only there weren't all those memories associated with it!

Glory days need Letterman jackets,

bad tattoos proved heartbreak happened,

yearbook pictures and ol' ball caps

tickets to a time you can’t get back.

Some stories can’t be told with just pen and paper,

some are keeping the Wrangler. 

(Wrangler / Colton Venner, Matt Jordan)

'Heart of the Heartland', whose title sounds like destined to be the album title in the first place, describes the spirit of optimism when finally getting out of a small midwestern town: give these wheels every mile of highway that we can, sights set on the rising sun, like a bullet screaming out of a gun, let's catch fire straight through the heart of the heartland.

'Your Town' describes a town which has everything a small town needs to have - except her:

If you ain't in the stands by starting lineups,
it's still hard to get a seat on Friday night,
still two for one past ten o'clock at Bobby's,
that cover band still plays the same old set.
They still can't hit the high notes on low places,
but after all this time they still don't know it yet
 

Nothing's changed, nothing's new

but nothing's the same since you cut loose.
I know you've got to run like you always do,
but that's what's going on in your town,
in your town without you. 

(Your Town / Jarrett Hartness, Matt Jordan)

The catchy 'One More Round' tells of a chance meeting with a former love and the memories made in a small town, before the longing for the big wide world put an end to it. Makes him wish he could live it again.

'Boulder' looks at finding your own way, dealing with burdens of life and the willingness to admit mistakes, while 'The Good Fight' talks about fighting everyday challenges while providing for your family. In 'Call me Crazy' she does not want to admit to a feeling, that everyone else seems to have noticed a while ago.

The project concludes with the autobiographical 'Cashing Out', that lets Matt Jordan summarize his first years in Nashville as well as the despair, that lets him return to an everyday job, still hoping to not be forgotten but eventually be given a second chance:

Motels and Parking lot views,

spent the better half of half of my life,

in and out, like weather rolls through.

 

I'm taking some wins, a couple bad losses,

a whole lot less yesses than no's,

caught up in the gamble,

forgot what the cost was,

but I'm turning these wheels for home.

 

So so long to the highways, so long to the game,

so long to the hope they remember my name.

I'll be back around,

it ain't goodbye for ever,

but for now I'm cashing out. 

(Cashing Out / Matt Jordan)

'The Gamble' is an appealing project, that lives by the sandpaper voice of Matt Jordan, as well as by the typical tales of small towns from the midwest, the heartland of America. With its sound it builds a bridge from  John Mellencamp to Kip Moore and recalls times, when hip hop and R&B were not dominating radio airwaves yet. However productionwise, an instrumentation a little less dense could  have added additional appeal. In particular a less predictable and a little longer bridge in each track could have given the songs a little more time to breathe.