Matt Sayles

After three years and 300 plus shows, Matt Sayles (co-founder and front-man of the upper-peninsula of Michigan band “Frostbitten Grass”) migrated to the High Deserts of Central Oregon & California. While in Oregon, Sayles met up and toured nationally from 2005-2006 with Texas progressive blues guitarist Francisco Mirabent, and has spent 2006-2009 in Michigan & Lassen County California touring regionally and working on his latest album “Wilson’s Hotel.”

"Wilson's Hotel" features Sayles exploring a multitude of new instruments and thematic material that reflect his western travels & and Michigan heritage. The album is entirely self-produced (mixed & mastered) with Sayles playing every instrument on all of the tracks with the exception of his sister (Melissa Risk) playing up-right piano on two instrumental duets.

The third track on the album, entitled “Coming Back,” paints a

bleak picture of the faces and stories Sayles heard while touring

southeast Michigan in 2006.

“During the 2006 tour Cisco and I played a place called the Whitehorse Tavern in Flint, MI a few times. For those who don't know Flint, it has been vying for the #1 spot as murder capital in the US for a number of years--only competition is Detroit, and some other rust-belt city in New Jersey. Yet we found the Whitehorse to be a throwback to a time when Flint & Detroit’s Willow Run manufacturing plant not only helped win WWII, but also built the groundwork for another generation of GM employees to earn a living, and raise their families. Sadly, Flint looked like a ghost of its former self, and that summer served as an early bellweather to the state of our current national economy. Every worker that came into the Whitehorse had stories to tell of being bought out for retirement, getting laid off, and wondering what the hell they were going to do next. For these workers, the Whitehorse is one of the last safe ports in a bleak sea of uncertainty.”