matt powell

Matt Powell is an American writer and musician. His work has been featured in Variety, No Depression journal, No Depression online, Emmys.com, Angels Flight—literary west, Humor in America, Community Works Journal, The Happy Music Center, StyleBlueprint, Scanner Zine, Buck Mason Journal, and Temporary Detective.

Understanding people through art and music is an overarching theme of Powell’s work. He approaches every piece with the philosophy that all American music is interconnected and that all people who create or listen, regardless of class or race, ultimately have similar experiences when it comes to love, loss, pride, shame, sorrow, and joy. Matt spent most of his twenties managing the legendary Ernest Tubb Record Shop on downtown Nashville’s historic Lower Broad, where he interacted daily with people from all corners of the world and all walks of life — the famous and the forsaken alike — and where he learned most of life’s important lessons.

Matt was a founding member of Dago Red Revival, The Incredible Heavies, and Mable Jo & the Jealous Hearts, whose single “Supernatural Man” was featured in the CW drama Supernatural.

He holds a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music in Boston, and a Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where he served as Research Editor on the International and Comparative Law Review. From 2012-2017, Matt was Music Editor at Humor in America, a blog affiliated with the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin.

Powell’s work reveals a varied and well-versed array of interests and perspectives. His writing has examined legendary, forgotten, and contemporary figures in music, film, literature, and television, as well as travel, true crime, the dignity of daily life, the immigrant experience in America, and broader cultural and historic themes. His writing brings a sophistication and maturity to any topic, thoroughly researched and insightful, causing the reader to contemplate the subject in unique ways. Matt considers it his mission as a writer to destroy lazy and overplayed cliches and narratives.