Is This it? b/w Nothing At All To Write Home About 

This was recorded with Wes Lachot at Overdub Lane Studios when it was in Carrboro next to the Cat's Cradle. I sent Leigh Sioris a bunch of songs I had recorded on 4 track and on acoustic guitar so he could come down from NYC and play bass on them. Is This It was a song that I was just sort of playing around with and it ended up on the tape with just me on acoustic guitar and it was his idea to include it because I did not really think much of it. It ended up being the single. We did a bunch of songs in those sessions and had some great musicians playing with us. Rob Ladd played drums, Charlie Ward played lead guitar on a few songs including the flip side of the single. I sold a few hundred and gave away a lot more. I did the cover and it included a postcard made by Randy Pelosi which I can't seem to find. We were recording and mixing and drinking retsina and smoking pot so by the end we were all pretty wasted when we decided on the final mix. But after the record came out we heard the rough mix that we had done before the retsina and pot had taken its full effect, and we decided we like it better. But it was too late. Anyway this is the version you are listening to here: Is This It?

Nothing at All To Write Home About is about an abduction by a femme fatale which may or may not have happened, with some amazing slide guitar by Charlie Ward, one of my guitar heroes.

The other songs from this session were One More Time, All My Friends from Greece, and If I Did It Again So Would You (formerly Mismatch from The Dads). Barney Pilgrim plays bouzouki and fiddle on One More Time and John Plymale plays Euphonium which is basically a tuba that you can carry around with you, sort of. Charlie Ward's guitar on that song reminds me of the guitar on the Velvet Underground's 'Heroin' and just by coincidence this is a drug song too.

MATT BARRETT - REVIEW

Is This it? b/w Nothing At All To Write Home About

Memorable and commercial, full of vocal and guitar hooks that grab you like barbed wire. Barrett soundsa bit "like Pete Townshend vocally, as well as, demonstrating a knack for catchy, classic chord progressions. 

This is certainly one of the year's finest pop 45s from North Carolina. (101 Lindsay St., Carrboro, NC 27510) 

MATT BARRETT: Is This It?/Nothing At All To Write Home About  (Ruse Records, 101 Lindsay St, Carrboro, NC 27510)

Instantly memorable! Barrett, along with assorted NC superstars, effortlessly come up with a plethora of vocal/guitar melodic hooks that make commercial radio sound lame by comparison. With a voice reminiscent of Pete Townshend's sweetest tones and knack for catchy, classic chord progressions, Barrett is certainly the archetypal "undiscovered local talent" that major labels hunger for, a la Tommy Keene. 

A side pulses sneakily into your mental list of summer tunes; B side rocks like Chilton on an inspired evening, neat slide guitar in there, solid drumming. Essential listening. Produced by Wes Lachot 

-Fred Mills