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Musicians backing Matt on the CD include experienced Nashville session players like steel guitar maestro Bruce Bowdon, who played on most Garth Brooks releases, and guitarist Michael Spriggs, who toured for years with Eddie Rabbitt. In fact, most of the musicians who played on his demo toured with Reba McEntire this past summer, Matt said.
While all three songs sound good, Cafe critics prefer the more traditional-sounding second and third tracks on the demo - the haunting Matraca Berg-penned "Angels Rush In," with its edgy bluegrass instrumentation, and "Never Met Mama," a homespun ballad from Matt's current songwriting partners, Jon Henderson and Lynn Hutton. The third number is the up-tempo "Cool Drink of Water" by Craig Burkhardt and Jack Sundrum.
We asked Matt who he sounds like, and he said he hopes he sounds like himself. He's been told his voice has echoes of Larry Gatlin ("All the Gold in California"), and he listed his current vocal influences as Vince Gill and Clint Black.
"Angels Rush In" is the cut most representative of the direction Matt hopes his music will take. Berg has written several songs that have become huge hits - "Strawberry Wine" for Deana Carter, "XXX's and OOO's" for Trisha Yearwood and "I'm That Kind of Girl" for Patty Loveless - so it looks as if Matt's picked a promising vehicle to propel him toward stardom.
Matt credits former Inspirations-member Eddie Deitz of Sylva for his early interest in gospel music.
"Eddie's son Brandon was my best friend, and I heard a lot of Inspirations music while I was growing up," Matt said.
Though he first left baseball for gospel music, Matt has set his sights on the country music charts. In fact, his first live country performance was right here in Sylva during last April's Greening Up the Mountains downtown festival.
"It was great to debut in front of a friendly, hometown crowd," said Matt, who returned three months later to help provide the sound track for Sylva's annual Fourth of July celebration.
Matt hasn't given up gospel music - he's broadened his range to include traditional country songs.
"I've always loved country music," Matt said. "It feels more comfortable, and I think I can communicate better with country, but I don't think I'll ever leave gospel music."
Though he's been singing all his life, Matt didn't consider music as a career until he was a senior in college. While in Knoxville, Tenn., visiting a friend, former Swain High and University of Tennessee football standout Benjie Shuler, Matt went to church with Benjie and another UT student.
Once he got to church, Matt found he was scheduled to sing; after the service a friend's brother told Matt that he was good enough to make it as a professional singer.
Matt took the advice and cut a gospel album that fall but couldn't promote it because of NCAA rules. He sold those tapes during weekend programs at area churches where he sang and gave testimony, he said.
After graduating from WCU in 1998, Matt moved to Knoxville to sell real estate with Benjie. Music kept beckoning and during a weekend visit to Atlanta he saw four commercials for Belmont University in Nashville, a school that's renowned for its music program. Then Matt went to a Phillips, Craig and Dean concert the next weekend where the opening act was a singer who had just graduated from Belmont.
"It's like I was getting a sign to go to Nashville," Matt said. "Enrolling in school at Belmont made my mom feel better about it."
His whole family has been supportive of his effort to pursue a recording career, Matt said. And considering the size of Matt's family, he's starting out with quite a fan club. In addition to his parents, George and Madge, and twin brothers, Luke and Jeff, Matt says he's related to "half of Jackson County."
Matt hopes to expand his fan base this summer when he gets a band together and begins performing across the region. He's got his own web page, www.MattStillwell.net, and his demo CD, which has received airplay on WRGC, is available locally at Kel-Save, Top Cat Grocery and Holiday BP in Dillsboro. Friends can write to Matt at 2601 Hillsboro Pike, Apt. B-14, Nashville, Tenn. 37212.
While Matt's not the first singer to forsake the baseball diamond for center stage, he's the first we know of from Sylva. Here's hoping the move works out as well for him as it did for Nashville legends Roy Acuff and Charlie Pride.
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Stillwell