FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

• Mat d. to release Merciful 66 album at the Sioux River Folk Festival on August 1st-3rd

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

After setting the bar so high in 2007 with his critically acclaimed and award winning "Gasoline Rattle" album, Folk Rising™ Music Productions was convinced that Mat d. would not be able to raise the bar even higher with future releases. But he's definitely done so with his new "Merciful 66" album, which will be released during the Sioux River Folk Festival at Newton Hills Park, just south of Canton, SD where he'll be performing on August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

Mat d., singer / songwriter from Sioux City, IA again works with recurring themes of hard living, lost love and heart wrenching spirituality using the "banks of old Route 66" as it's musical inspiration and lyrical backdrop. The album, produced by collaborator and guitarist Kurt Mullins stays true to Mat's acoustic roots, expanding on the stripped down style of 'Gasoline Rattle" with a more somber tone and focus than it's predecessor. The album, dedicated to the memory of Mat's father who died in early 2008, serves as a journey of grief, comfort and personal reflection for the songwriter. Mat stated that "following my father's death the tone of the album changed dramatically. Much of the material I had prepared for the CD no longer seemed to represent what I was feeling; so we shelved several of the songs and I went about working on music that became very cathartic for me."

Merciful 66 chronicles some of Mat's most heartfelt songwriting and performances to date. A few of the album's songs draw directly from Mat's own experiences - the song "North Star" represents meeting and falling in love with his wife, while others tell an allegorical story of his father's life and work. Even though much of the album ventures to the darker side of the tracks, Mat's signature redemptive and glimmer of hope cynicism remains intact from the Coney Island inspired "Gypsy Town" to the gospel flavored "Gasoline Angel". The theme of mercy is woven tightly into each track from the old timey big tent revival holler of "the Ghost of Huddie Ledbetter" to the bittersweet tone of "Merciful 66" and "Metropolicana".

Mat describes the creative process that went into the new album with "My Dad worked for over 20 years as a driver, running his own transportation business, so I wrote the songs from a driver's point of view - trying to convey what someone at the wheel would perceive down a stretch of old highway populated by the broken hearted and spiritually conflicted - while ultimately arriving at a point of peace and redemption at the end of a long journey. There's a little bit of something for everyone on the CD. A few murder ballads, old time gospel, country, and folk - you name it. Kurt and I tried to keep things diverse this time around without steering away from that hard luck Americana sound we've developed over the past few years. I'm very happy with the results and I think my Dad would have liked it too." To hear clips from Mat's new "Merciful 66" CD please visit www.myspace.com/matderiso.

The goal of Folk Rising™ Productions, LLC (http://www.folkrising.com/) is to help develop Sioux Falls, SD into a center for regional professional and amateur folk* musicians to gain exposure for their material, meet other like minded musicians / enthusiasts, have fun and learn through listening and playing with a variety of other regional musicians..

###