Matt Swanton

Matt Swanton was nine years old the first time he walked into The Bull Run in Shirley, Massachusetts. Something on that stage rewired him. He went home, picked up a guitar, and didn’t put it down. The next several years looked like what they always look like for the ones who are serious — a bedroom, a guitar, and hours that nobody else knows about. Then high school bands. Then sitting in at blues jams, holding his own against players twice his age.

He writes everything he plays. That’s worth saying twice, because it’s rare. The Matt Swanton Band doesn’t lean on covers or crowd-pleasers — every song on both albums came from Swanton’s head. His self-titled debut steeped itself in traditional blues, late-60s psychedelic rock, and funk. Growing Pains, the twelve-track follow-up released in 2025, pushed further: “Mulpus Bop” opens with an instrumental that sets the tone, “Soldier” delivers what Blues Blast Magazine called “wickedly hot” guitar, and “Too Close to the Sun” goes somewhere most blues acts won’t — mental health, handled with the same directness he brings to everything else.

In 2023, the Boston Blues Society chose The Matt Swanton Band to represent Massachusetts at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. They made it to the semi-finals. BroadwayWorld called the band’s sound “fiery guitar work, soulful vocals, and high-voltage jams.” Blues Blast Magazine reviewed Growing Pains as “blues songs with a heavy rock feel” that merge “psychedelic rock, blues, soul and funk into a fun album” — and added that it was “well worth a spin, especially if guitar and keys are something you appreciate.”

The band — Ken Edelman on bass, Will Tattan on drums — holds down a circuit across New England that includes Chan’s Egg Rolls & Jazz in Woonsocket, Vincent’s in Worcester, and The Music Room on Cape Cod. Swanton books his own shows, drives his own gear, and plays every room like it’s the only one that matters. Central Massachusetts blues, carved in overdrive.