UK country singer-songwriter Matt Hodges bringing ‘Cross the Pond Tour’ to Cambridge
Arriving slightly late for the support act at the Josh Abbott Band’s London gig in August, I was quite surprised to discover that said opening act – who wore a baseball cap and sounded American when he sang – was in fact English. His name was Matt Hodges and he’s from Wakefield in West Yorkshire.
Following his support slot with the popular Texas country outfit at what was their first live performance in the capital, this week Matt will be appearing alongside another American country singer, Ruthie Collins, at The Portland Arms in Cambridge.
Speaking to the Cambridge Independent from London, where he was recording a new song (he’s still based in Wakefield), Matt notes that normally plays around four gigs a week.
“I’m sort of here, there and everywhere – I do a lot of private stuff as well, weddings and stuff like that,” he says, adding that he’s “really excited” about the new song.
“Some songs that you do and record, they’re just fun songs,” he observes, “but this one there’s a message in it that I wanted to get across.
“It’s supporting people and letting everyone know that people are all struggling but there’s people around them, though, and there’s stuff you can do to change it. It means a lot to me.”
Matt notes that the song is to be released as a single at the end of the year. “But I have got another single coming out a week after the tour as well,” he reveals.
Titled ‘Cross the Pond Tour’, the run with Ruthie kicks off in Leicester this evening (October 9) and comes to an end on October 27, with a show in Matt’s home town.
Matt reveals that it was the storytelling that initially got him into country music. “I liked the realism in the artists and you could relate to stuff,” he says.
Explaining how he came to be acquainted with Nashville-based Ruthie, he adds: “We did a show a couple of years ago in London called ‘Nashville Meets London’.
“The company is called Nashville Meets London and they bring people over from the States – and they’ve even done a show over in Nashville now.
“And I met Ruthie; she was over here for a few weeks doing some shows. I said to her, ‘When do you have to go back?’ and we instantly got on.
“So I said, ‘If I could put a show on in Wakefield, would you have time to come and do it?’ and she said, ‘Let me come back to you’.
“And she came back and we managed to get a date in and she really enjoyed doing the show – there’s quite a little country following now in my home town…
“So we did the show, and I fly out to Nashville quite a lot – I’m over there every 10, 12 weeks trying to write songs with people and stuff. I wrote some songs with Ruthie and every time I’m over there now, we try and write a song.
“She wanted to do more in the UK and I said it would be really great if we could maybe do a tour together, so the last time I was out in Nashville, I literally came home and planned the tour out and booked it all in two and a half weeks – which was a bit of a crazy thing to try and do, because a lot of people spend months to a year planning a tour.
“I managed to do it all in two and a half weeks and it’s worked out well. I rang Ruthie and said, ‘Look, I really think this would be a good thing for you to come on, are you interested?’ and she was more than up for it because she’s always up for anything she can get involved in over here.
“And it’s always easier going on the road with someone if you know them pretty well, because obviously you’re spending a lot of time together; you’re in different hotels, you’re travelling every day together and then you spend the evenings together… so she was in straight away, pretty much.”
Matt, who notes that the country music scene is the “fastest growing scene in the UK”, describes Nashville as his “home away from home”.
He has been going there for just over 10 years and has written with a number of other songwriters there, including Kirstie Kraus, George Shingleton, and Zach Neil.
See Matt and Ruthie at The Portland Arms in Cambridge this Thursday (October 12). Visit theportlandarms.co.uk/wp/ for tickets, priced £16.96. For more on Matt, go to matthodgesmusic.com.