Poor Player is a six piece Motor City Americana band that takes to the stage with barrel house rambles, neo Dustbowl yodels, Tecumseh strums, and a hopped up grab bag of American riddles and laments. Saluting the guy flying a sign beside the highway exit, zigzagging through the post-industrial prairie, Poor Player is all about finding the roots beneath the rubble, the green beneath the ruin, the country blues in the pothole concrete, the folk in the f***d up, and the beauty in the city gone to seed. Always bring a flask to Poor Player shows and spill some firewater for the brothers passed and who are passing. Missing Poor Player one place search another, they're on some stage waiting for you.
Singer-songwriter Matt Fredericks spent his youth wandering from Washington state to Washington, D.C., soaking in corners of America from Cascade crags to skateable curbs, freight trains to farm fields, big bending rivers winding alongside campus cafes and civilizational decay, scribbling half-thoughts on post-its all along the way. Returning to Detroit he formed Poor Player in 2011, inspired by the likes of Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt and underground psyche-folk legend Rodriguez. The songs weave tales of travels near and far, inside and out, mental drifters who skirt edges and pace ledges. Rediscovering the Detroit cityscape by way of wayward roots music, the Rustbelt revivalist wilderness becomes foundation for a sort of mutant country, dirt-road-soaked-in-car-battery-acid-with-a-sunflower-sprouting-out-of-it vision of folk music grace.
Fred Vitale, longtime Michigan Green Party activist, translates political consciousness into rollicking barrelhouse romps worthy of Memphis Slim, journeyman drummer Stu Tucker provides percussive range from broke down ballads to manic gut bucket stomps, Detroit Music Award nominated guitarist Brian Simon rounds out graffitied melodies with a flavor of greasy New York art punk and Detroit music veteran Mark Biermann locks down the low end with an irrepressible smirk.
Matt Fredericks - vocals & guitar
Marija Franetovic - vocals
Fred Vitale - keyboards
Brian Simon - Electric guitar/Banjo/Mandolin
Mark Biermann - Bass
Stu Tucker - Percussion
Singer-songwriter Matt Fredericks spent his youth wandering from Washington state to Washington, D.C., soaking in corners of America from Cascade crags to skateable curbs, freight trains to farm fields, big bending rivers winding alongside campus cafes and civilizational decay, scribbling half-thoughts on post-its all along the way. Returning to Detroit he formed Poor Player in 2011, inspired by the likes of Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt and underground psyche-folk legend Rodriguez. The songs weave tales of travels near and far, inside and out, mental drifters who skirt edges and pace ledges. Rediscovering the Detroit cityscape by way of wayward roots music, the Rustbelt revivalist wilderness becomes foundation for a sort of mutant country, dirt-road-soaked-in-car-battery-acid-with-a-sunflower-sprouting-out-of-it vision of folk music grace.
Fred Vitale, longtime Michigan Green Party activist, translates political consciousness into rollicking barrelhouse romps worthy of Memphis Slim, journeyman drummer Stu Tucker provides percussive range from broke down ballads to manic gut bucket stomps, Detroit Music Award nominated guitarist Brian Simon rounds out graffitied melodies with a flavor of greasy New York art punk and Detroit music veteran Mark Biermann locks down the low end with an irrepressible smirk.
Matt Fredericks - vocals & guitar
Marija Franetovic - vocals
Fred Vitale - keyboards
Brian Simon - Electric guitar/Banjo/Mandolin
Mark Biermann - Bass
Stu Tucker - Percussion