Tom Pevear + Matt Tedder
Tom Pevear is a Tulsa based guitarist and singer who uses his adept fingerpicking style and vibrant singing to revitalize old blues, folk, bluegrass and country songs.
‘You don’t truly know how to play a song until you’ve played it in front of people. Even if there is only one other person watching,’ says Bostonian turned Okie guitar player and singer Tom Pevear. “Old blues, folk, gospel and country songs are living breathing things, in that they are passed down from person to person for each musician to leave a mark on.
Released in September 2023, Pevear’s debut EP is filled with six of his favorite songs to perform. Each pays homage to various versions of the song while his interpretations are uniquely his own.
A Pevear set will include his arrangements of songs from artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Mose Allison, Rev. Gary Davis, Flatt & Scruggs and The Delmore Brothers, alongside classic songs and his originals.
Tom plays over 150 gigs a year throughout the central US, while holding down weekly residencies at home in Tulsa.
He has shared the stage with, and opened for John Fullbright, Matt Tedder, Dustin Arbuckle, Kind Hearted Strangers, Mike Hosty, Seth Lee Jones and the Greyhounds to name a few. And, in 2024 will play Horton Records T-Town Git Down, and the Midland Roots & Blues Festival.
Though a Parker County native, Matt Tedder has long called Fort Worth home. Of course, home is rarely where any musician lays his head and Matt has been fortunate, at 28, to have experiences over the last thirteen years from street corners to main stages at international festivals.
Country roots were ever present as those of a post oak, but blues called him out at a young age and the road home was long. Lauded as a guitar man since he was a boy, Tedder now feeds his true calling as a honky-tonk wordsmith. He’s capable of laying down embraceable turn of phrase inside everything from a hot Austin boogie to a post-war waltz. Then he’ll light up your lava lamp with a psychedelic romp suitable for a desert run with the windows down. Of course, those blues are always close at hand & he can slide ‘em into a set seamlessly…
The new album, I Can Dream You, recorded at The Finishing School in Austin, TX and produced by Gordy Quist of Band of Heathens infamy. Quist said, “Matt Tedder is one of those rare artists equally moving as a songwriter, as a singer, and as a guitarist. He is one of the most compelling musicians I’ve worked with improvising live in the studio, musically conversing with and elevating the rest of the band, bringing his own songs to life. It’s a true joy to make music with him.”
I Can Dream You features ten original songs, all of which were written or co-written by Tedder with help from Quist, Sean Russell (Cut Throat Finches) and Dan Dyer. For this project, Tedder unpacks two years of grief after the painful loss of his father and regains a sense of place. This new collection of songs marks a stylistic turning point in Tedder’s catalog. Drawing influence from the country and folk albums he grew up listening to with his father, Tedder delivers flawless guitar riffs interspersed with soulful, emotive vocals and his most poignant, sublime songcraft to date.
Of the new tracks, Tedder says “For me, this album is a journey inward, a road back to what feels good and true, a love letter to my father and the music he shared with me.”
