Collegiate Times

Matt Walsh’s six-inch orange pompadour is coming to Blacksburg on Friday and he is bringing along his blues with him, too.

The musician will play his tunes at Gillie’s as part of its Late Night music series.

Walsh, a singer and songwriter form North Carolina, has toured the country with his Chicago blues style that harkens back to music from the 1950s.

Walsh spoke with the Collegiate Times over the phone about his influences, the blues and his attention-grabbing haircut.

COLLEGIATE TIMES: Have you been to Blacksburg before?

Matt Walsh: Yeah, I’ve been up there before. It’s a real fun town. The first time I played up there about two years ago my granddad had just died a few days before. I came up early and just spent the day there. It was a really refreshing little getaway for me. It’s kind of always been for me ever since.

CT: How do you feel about the college town environment?

WALSH: Well, I’ve played college towns across the country. When folks come in you just know what kind of town it is.

CT: How did you begin playing the blues?

WALSH: I started out listening to all kinds of music and just came across the blues when I was a young kid because it was real accessible. I got into it because of my uncle and he turned me on to Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins, all those kinds of guys.

I listen to all kinds of music, anything from blues to hip-hop. It’s just that blues has been the only one I really yearned to play. (What) I really get off on playing more than anything is old, nasty Southside Chicago blues from the ’50s. It’s no frills, heavy, emotional kind of music.

CT: Gillie’s isn’t exactly Blacksburg’s biggest venue. How do you deal with playing in smaller places like that?

WALSH: Well, I think in the past I’ve just gone in there and done it with an archtop (guitar) and a little amp. I’ll just play my archtop or maybe a Les Paul and turn down the amp to do some medium volume stuff. I’ll probably do some original stuff as well as old blues stuff like Muddy Waters or Little Walter.

CT: How long have you been writing original music?

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