StubbS’ hub
The guitarist spreads his sound with Sinclair residency
If you've seen blues legend Charlie Musselwhite lately, you know the 73-yearold still wails on the harp and charms audiences with his wit and weatherworn voice. You also know there are moments during the show when guitarist Matthew Stubbs elicits cheers that match the hoots for Musselwhite.
Stubbs is closing in on a decade as the guitarist in Musselwhite's band. But for the 35-year-old southern New Hampshire native, playing with a living legend is a “day job.” (Note: Stubbs fully acknowledges it is the world's greatest day job.)
“I got the gig while I was living in Los Angeles and touring with another blues artist named John Nemeth,” he said from France during a five-week European tour. “John would use different musicians, and I became friends with June Core, Musselwhite's longtime drummer. When the guitar chair opened in Charlie's band, June recommended me, and I have been with him ever since.”
For Stubbs, it's a natural fit. “My roots are no doubt in traditional blues,” he said. “That has always been the music that speaks to me most.”
But the guitarist's style is much more expansive than a simple tour around a 12-bar blues.
Most Mondays in 2016, Stubbs and his own backing band, the Antiguas, could be found at Cambridge's Plough & Stars, laying down a mix of blues, soul, garage rock and psychedelia. For 2017, he has moved his Downbeat Mondays residency to the larger Sinclair Lounge — catch the Antiguas with some amazing special guests, including the Silks' TylerJames Kelly next week, and Duke Levine on April 10.
“The Plough & Stars was a great experience, (and) I love it there,” he said. “We ended up moving to the Sinclair after a year because we needed a bigger room. I also wanted to expand our (video) projections and be able to bring in some guests and do special double-bill shows from time to time. Since we've been at the Sinclair, things have grown really fast.”
Stubbs is known as a killer live player (two Boston Music Award nominations don't lie). But he hopes to expand his reputation with a debut disc from the Antiguas. (You can support the project by checking out pledgemusic.com/projects/matthewstubbs through April.)
Like everything Stubbs does, the record will be instrumental, but he's looking to expand his sonic palette with odder influences. Expect bits of acid rock, Afrobeat and off-kilter '60s soundtrack stuff.
“We are a song- and melodybased band, but we do lots of stretching out at times,” he said. “We try to create lots of hooks with melodies, but I am always trying to incorporate sounds and textures from all over the map. I love big, wide-open soundscapes and music made for films, such as spaghetti Westerns and Quentin Tarantino movies. I'm always trying to create a mood and a feeling.”
Stubbs has put the recording in the capable hands of Dave Brophy, who produced my favorite record of 2016, Ruby Rose Fox's “Domestic.”
“When I first started tracking a few of these tunes, I was having trouble getting them to sound the way I heard them in my head,” Stubbs said. “Dave and I started talking about what I was wanting, and he had me come over to his studio with (engineer) Pat DiCenso. The three of us spent a few hours mixing one song, and it was a world of difference.”
It will be awesome to have a slice of wax from Stubbs and his Antiguas. It will be even better to hear those songs evolve over a year (or more, hopefully) of Mondays at the Sinclair. Matthew Stubbs and the Antiquas, with special guests, every Monday at the Sinclair Lounge, Cambridge. Free; sinclaircambridge.com.