FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

• Folk RisingT 2008 Folk Album of the Year awarded to Mat D's Merciful 66 CD

Contact: Folk Rising Music Productions, LLC, kap@folkrising.com , (605-363-5018)

Folk Rising T Music Productions, LLC (Folk Rising)'s 2008 Folk Album of the year is awarded to Mat D for his Merciful 66 album.   Gary Kappenman, A&R for Folk Rising, stated "as I sit here listening to Mat's Merciful 66 album for about the 20 th time, I'm considering that reviewers of Mat's first solo album, Gasoline Rattle, reminded them of a young Steve Earle.   While I enjoy listening to Steve Earle, I believe Mat's new album goes significantly beyond Steve Earle's work in both the striking imagery of Mat's lyrics and the heartfelt soulfulness he brings to his vocals.   If you like Steve Earle's work, I think you'll love Mat's new Merciful 66 album!"

Here's what Blues Bunny (www.bluesbunny.com), a U.K. independent music review group, wrote about Mat's new CD:   "There are singer songwriters and there are real singer songwriters. Many of them are merely filling in time whilst at university playing at being in the music business. Then there are the true troubadours that sing the songs of the lost souls lost on the highway of life. Such a troubadour is Mat D. His songs reek of the decay of the souls brought by cigarettes, alcohol, heartbreak and hard times. You get the feeling that the meeting with the Devil down at the crossroads is coming soon as he sings his way through this collection of tales of the downtrodden. Take "The Ghost of Huddie Ledbetter", for example, as the protagonist of the song finds himself "sleeping on a dirt road waiting for the mercy to come". You know that dirt road leads to redemption. Likewise "North Star", as the title suggests, looks for a way out of the darkness and into the light. His words have the poetry of the true storyteller and they have soul. Like the late Lee Hazelwood, his songs speak from the heart. There is affection for the subjects of his songs but also the same lack of sentimentality. Life hurts and that's the way it always has been and that's how it always will be."

Jim Pipkin of HickoryWind.org, suggested that " Red Prairie by Mat d, from his Merciful 66 album, makes my list for the best folk music of 2008" and Peter Harriman from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader wrote "His edgy lyrics are delivered in a driving, abrupt rhythm reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen" about Mat's 2008 Sioux River Folk Festival performance where he release his Merciful 66 CD.

Folk Rising T   Productions, LLC ( http://www.folkrising.com/ ) mission is to help regional "folk" / roots   musicians gain exposure for their material and to assist in the resurgence of Americana music.

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