Matuto Returns To The States For 12 City Tour

NYC guitarist Clay Ross and his band Matuto make their return to the states with a 12 city tour after showcasing at 2011's WOMEX conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The group has performances scheduled in New York City, Philadelphia, DC, Atlanta, and several dates in North Carolina and South Carlina (full schedule below). Ross will be joined by accordionist Rob Curto, fiddler Rob Hecht, bassist Skip Ward, percussionist Ze Mauricio, and drummer Tim Keiper.

Matuto has urged Mohawk-sporting Americans to invent new line dances. They've gotten skeptical Recife crowds dancing madly. They've brought 12-bar blues jams to frevo-playing favela teenagers and projected Northeastern Brazil's unmistakable sway into Appalachia's shadowy hollows and Louisiana's funkiest swamps.

From the banks of the Ohio to the dusty backyard dances of Olinda, Matuto moves with two-stepping grace between bluegrass and forró, between swamp rock and maracatu, between surf guitar shimmies and the wah-wah of the berimbau. Veterans of the New York music scene and U.S. festival circuit, Matuto ("bumpkin" in Brazilian slang) is making their return to the States after their European debut.

Matuto are part of a broader, loosely defined movement of hard-to-define acoustic innovators, American musicians savoring their own heritage as they commune across genre and cultural bounds. These artists cultivate face-to-face intimacy with audiences, respectful and committed exploration of worldly sounds, and spot-on yet intuitively shaped musicianship.

East Coast Tour December 9 - December 22, 2011

December 9 @ Barbès
New York, NY

December 10 @ World Cafe Live
Philadelphia, PA

December 15 @ Evening Muse
Charlotte, NC

December 16 @ Electric City Playhouse
Anderson, SC

December 17 @ The White Mule
Columbia, SC

December 18 @ Stiebel House Concert
Mebane, NC