Bloomington native and early-career rocker Matthew Curry is back with his first album in six years. One for the Ride drops June 6, with an album release concert that night at the Castle Theatre in Bloomington—which he’s again calling home after living in Nashville for more than five years.
“It was just becoming incredibly overpopulated, incredibly expensive—and all of our family and everybody is here,” Curry said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “The plan was to maybe come back and try to rabbit hole a little money, so to speak, then go move back.”
Curry and his wife are hoping to get within an hour of Music City to soak up all Nashville has to offer.
“We really, really loved Tennessee,” he said. “Musically it’s just happening everywhere, every night, all the time. That’s not so much the case here, but it’s also—that’s kind of nice to have a little bit of a slower pace. It’s been nice to see family and go back to some of our old stomping grounds, putting canoes on the Mackinaw River and stuff like that.”
Curry still spends most of his time on the road, but since moving back to the Twin Cities in October he’s also focused on One for the Ride, a collection of 10 songs which, in many ways, is a return to form. His 2019 album Open Road was part of a concerted effort to tame his blazing guitar and focus more on songwriting.
“I had so many people come up after shows that follow the band and they loved the last record. But they’re like, man, we sure miss that guitar driving, rock and roll in your face,” said Curry. “I’m like, OK, give the people what they want, I guess.”
Indeed, there’s plenty of “what the people want” on One for the Ride.
“But at the same time, I tried to walk the line of still focusing on the fact that the songwriting wasn’t just mailed in. All I can do is be me and write songs that come out at the time,” he said. “If they’re rockers, great, if they’re not, well, I gotta get ‘em out there too.”
He incorporated horns for the first time since his debut album. The first track, a Southern Rock ripper called Rum Stumblin’, features Marc Russo from The Doobie Brothers on saxophones, who wrote the horn arrangements and recruited Bay Area trumpeter Mike Olmos, and Jimmie Vaughan’s trombone player Mike Rinta.
Longtime bandmates Tim Brickner and Francis Valentino are on bass and drums. Rob Arthur, Peter Frampton’s organist, plays Hammond organ on a few tracks, with additional keys from Mark Masefield and Grace Quackenboss. Valentino and Curry produced, mixed and mastered the album, most of which was recorded at a nearby rehearsal space called The Hub Studios.
“I have free rein to that 24/7 if I want,” said Curry. “That’s been nice to go down there whenever I want, turn the amps up to 10. It could be 3 a.m. and no one’s gonna say anything. It’s kind of tucked back in the middle of nowhere where I can’t get in trouble for that kind of thing.”
For the show at the Castle, Curry said he’ll play the full album, with a few old tracks sprinkled in and some unreleased songs for the next record—which he promises won’t take six years.
“We’ve already got about half of that one done already,” he said.
Matthew Curry plays at 8 p.m. Friday, June 6, at the Castle Theatre, 209 E. Washington St., Bloomington. The full band show features Curry, Brickner, Valentino, Quackenboss and special guest Erik Nelson, who owns Eclipse Studios in Normal joining as an additional keys player. Tickets $22 at thecastletheatre.com. Pre-order information on One for the Ride is available at matthewcurry.com.
