Mat Kearney 'Nothing Left To Lose' album

"I packed my car and headed east where I felt your fire and your sweet release/There's a fire in these hills and that's coming down"

For singer-songwriter Mat Kearney (pronounced CAR-knee), Nothing Left To Lose is about how the echoes of your past can guide you through what lies ahead. On the title-track of his major-label debut, Kearney retraces the long road that brought him from his hometown in Eugene, Oregon to his adopted home in Nashville, Tennessee. Written to make sense of his life, "Nothing Left to Lose" looks at the past to see the future.

Recorded at Dark Horse Studios in Nashville and released through Aware/Columbia Records, Nothing Left To Lose features 12 tracks produced by Robert Marvin and Mat Kearney. The album's sprawling diversity defies shorthand definitions and reflects Kearney's confidence and emotional range. The songs move fluently from the poetic meditations of folk to the embraceable openness of pop to acoustic moments backed by hip-hop rhythms.

"Undeniable," the album's first single, was written while Kearney was working as a youth mentor in Nashville. Kearney penned the song as a message of hope and encouragement for a struggling student at Franklin High School that he was helping. "All around him, his life was a mess and his family life wasn't easy," Kearney recalls. "I drove past his school that was in the process of being torn down every morning on my way to the studio and thought about how his hope came through all those ashes like a flower. That battle to hold onto hope and find grace in overwhelming situations is at the heart of this album."

In "Undeniable" Kearney blends distinctive beats and percussive delivery with melodic hooks to make the song truly unique. "My uncle is a painter and he told me once that if your vibe outweighs your content then you are destined to be a novelty," Kearney explains. "Regardless of the style I use to get my point across, it has to come back to what is pure and real—the song has to stand on its own."

On "Won't Back Down," a soulful song inspired by Johnny Cash's spiritual awakening, Kearney uses a simple but powerful arrangement of piano, vocals and strings to capture the song's emotional essence. The last song Kearney recorded, "Won't Back Down" almost didn't make the album. "I finished writing the song while we were wrapping up the session, but we didn't really have time to record it," Kearney recalls. "I grabbed an intern and we snuck into the big room at Dark Horse. We set up some microphones and let the tape roll and ended up keeping the second take."

Nothing Left to Lose demonstrates the ongoing evolution of Kearney's sound from "Girl America"—one of his earliest—to "Where We Gonna Go from Here"—one of his most recent. "You hear a good mix of where I've been and where I'm going on the album," he explains. "I'm out on tour now more than ever and a lot of my newer songs are inspired by the cities I visit and the people I meet. The newer songs are more organic and have a little dirt on them from the road."

HISTORY
Kearney's journey began while studying literature at Chico State University in California, where he began combining his lifelong loves for music and words into songs. Near the end of his junior year, a friend introduced Kearney to Robert Marvin. The two hit it off, and when Marvin was asked to move to Nashville to produce an album a few months later, he asked Kearney to come with him. "We hadn't known each other that long, and neither of us knows why Robert asked me to come with him," Kearney recalls. "My plan was to stay in Nashville for a summer, write some songs, record a few demos and go back to school in the fall, but I never made it back."

In a few short months, Kearney entertained offers from several record labels. Instead of jumping at the record deals, he turned them all down. Inspired by Nashville's storied music scene, Kearney felt it was essential for him to develop his voice as a songwriter before making an album. "I played at open mic nights where, accomplished songwriters like Duncan Sheik, Nickel Creek and Mindy Smith performed. You realize quickly how much you have to learn," he says. "As a musician in Nashville, you live in the shadow of larger than life characters like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. You drive down the street and see Emmylou Harris and Pattie Griffith at the stoplight. It's a daunting task to compare yourself to such accomplished artists, but it drives you to do better."

After three years of working odd jobs while writing and refining his songs, Kearney was ready to make a record. It was during a meeting with an independent record label that he had a revelation of how to make his vision a reality. "I realized the only thing that they were offering me was money. I felt that I had the songs and someone to help produce. The only thing I didn't have was the resources to record it," he says "Then I heard how Damien Rice made his record on his own and I thought, 'What's stopping me?' I called Robert Marvin and we came up with a budget over coffee. Within a month we started recording my record without knowing where it would lead."

Kearney was right to follow his instincts. His hard work paid off in October 2004 when he licensed his self-financed independent release, Bullet, with indie label Inpop Records. A few months later, Kearney inked a deal with Aware/Columbia Records to release his major-label debut, Nothing Left to Lose.

Kearney will support Nothing Left to Lose with a summer acoustic tour followed by a fall tour backed by a full band.

Just like in the title-track, Kearney finds himself back on the road rolling with his wheels pointed to the future and an ear tuned to the past. "Come on and we'll sing like we were free/Push the pedal down, watch the world around fly by us."

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Mat Kearney - Nothing Left To Lose