Artist description Hello! If you want to know about the Black Umbrellas...keep reading! I hope some of you are still enjoying the Unplugged CD and the wordmadeflesh CD. Remember, the wordmadeflesh CD can be purchased at www.mp3.com/wordmadeflesh. If you want any of my music but dont want to pay the $8 for the packaged product let me know and maybe I can burn you a CD. If you can, try to purchase the wordmadeflesh CD because it was made specifically as a fund raising CD. If you just can’t scrape up the dough, we can talk. As usual all money made from any of these CDs will go to Word Made Flesh. You can contact me on this web page. Now, welcome the Black Umbrellas. All the songs on this album were written by Matt Reda and Brent Matzen (except for Spanish Garden written by Brad Ashlock). I met these guys in Michigan and they sent me the album in order to record the vocals and soup it up a bit with effects and a few guitar licks. It's a totally different kind of album for me and I enjoyed working on it immensely. I named it (Pedestrian Music Vol. 1) because during the mixing process as the songs evolved I listened to them on my discman while walking to and from work here in downtown Chicago. The album seems like a walking album and we hope to make another one together in the near future. Please feel free to download and distribute the songs. Also stop by www.mattammerman.com Enjoy!

Music Style Folk/Rock

Musical Influences Jeff Tweedy, Whiskeytown, Jay Farrar, Duncan Sheik, Nick Drake, Rich Mullins, Stevie Wonder, and Sting,

Artist History Matt started writing and playing music in his junior high days. He was 15 the first time he played an original in front of a crowd. Currently matt is living in Chicago with his wife Becky and has plans to continue his music career. The following is more information pertaining to Matt's albums. SERPENTS HAVE NO SHOULDERS - Recorded in 1999 & inspired by time Matt spent in India VERY DARK NIGHT - Recorded in 2000 & inspired by early vintage horror films and music of the 30's and 40's MAGIC NEPHEW - Recorded in 2000 These songs are found on (mp3.com/magicnephew) MagicNephew is no more, but the band members were: Matt Ammerman on vocals/guitar, Dan Bissot on vocals/bass/guitar, Scott Bissot on lead guitar, & Jeff Whitmore on drums/guitar. Scott, Jeff, and Dan are currently writing & recording a new album. These songs will be posted under a different site. Be sure to check out Dans site (www.mp3.com/hillmusic) for updates. ONE MORE SMILE - Recorded in 2001 & inspired by time Matt spent in Romania (The Extraordinary Extra P, a R&B Midwest musician and producer teamed up with matt to co-produce and co-compose music for this album) MAGIC NEPHEW LIVE - Produced in 2002 Matt took some old live recordings of the MagicNephew band, remastered them and created this six song EP. WORDMADEFLESH - Recorded 2002-2003 Matt wrote and produced songs inspired by and for Word Made Flesh, a non-profit organization that works with third world poor. Jared K. Landreth wrote and sings the song COMMON MAN Steve Baker from the Chicago band THE WOODROWS plays steel guitar on EULOGY OF BASHU and The Renaissance Choir of Emsworth Hampshire England appears on the song PRIDE HAS DIED. UNPLUGGED 2003 - An acoustic version with almost all new songs. Digging up some dusty songs from years past this album is like a journal from age 18 to 25. Subjects range from life in Sierra Leone in the song "Blood Diamonds" to a reflection on Harper Lee's classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in the song "Spooky Summer". THE BLACK UMBRELLAS (Pedestrian Music Vol. 1) 2003 - The lyrics and music for this album were written by Matt Reda and Brent Matzen (excluding "Spanish Garden" written by Brad Ashlock). Matt Ammerman performed the vocals on the entire CD and remixed the original recordings adding instrumentation and effects. This album is a twist of emotions and even humor. Matt Reda is a writer, has completed several novels and is currently a teacher. Brent Matzen has written music for years and is currently a member of the United States Armed Services.

Instruments acoustic & bass guitar, harmonica, keyboards and accordian

Albums Serpents have no shoulders, Very Dark Night, One More Smile, Magic Nephew (LIVE), wordmadeflesh, UNPLUGGED, The Black Umbrellas (Pedestrian Music Vol. 1)

Press Reviews Despite much of today's entertainers weilding Marshall McLuhan's chalice of "The medium is the massage", often the medium isn't really all that important, so long as the message does in fact massage. Matthew Ammerman's medium is simple, a computer with a microphone in a bedroom, used to capture the movement of the strings on his guitar cleverly enmeshed with that of his own vocal cords. And the massage is beautiful. Whatever one might say about the recording quality, one might also say the warm hiss and the sound of the bugs chirping in the background add to the simple poetic beauty of this song. It's well worth checking out the rest of Matthew's songs, if only for the tantalisingly elusive in origin, but original in character lyrics. In Pigeonholes Aside Two, comments were made about the simple beauty of folk tunes, and this song is testament to the fact that what sets a good folk tune as out from the crowd is the quality of lyrics, no matter how mundane one might find the subject matter. A great folk artist with a very original style well worth checking out. -----(PIGEONHOLE ASIDE FOUR RADIO)------------ THE BEST WRITTEN SONGS ON MP3, NO QUESTIONS ASKED (AND NONE ANSWERED). Move over Dylan -----(SYNERGISM) ------------ Here's some well-crafted, home-spun folk/pop. "White-album era Beatles meets Duncan Sheik" comes close to describing this gem. -----(NUGGETS RADIO)------------ Matt is such a talented songwriter. He shows his creative genious through his lyric writing and tops it off w/ his unique vocal sound. Matt has been a huge inspiration for the folks at Delta Musica. -----(DELTA MUSICA)-----------

Additional Info Half of any money given for the purchase of this CD will go to the non profit organization Word Made Flesh. Word Made Flesh works in many third world countries with troubled families and neglected children. Please visit these sites to aid in the fight against poverty: wordmadeflesh.com & thehungersite.com

Location Chicago, IL - USA

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