Mat D.

Mat D. hits us with a heavy-handed southern country rock album that's done with a warm acoustic setting and a personal, soulful style of storytelling with a series of intense and vividly painted with his words.

The Phantom Locomotive album is packed with layers of textures portrayed in guitar tones, swelling emotion and the ability to cause your own memories to pop into your hotel when you least expect it.

One of the most outstanding things about this record is its instrumentation with such a beautifully natural feel. Violins, and acoustic guitars just have this wonderful sound and along with the passionate vocal performances, it all has the ability to take you to other places all together.

Now, having said that, it's important that you know, there's a ton more to this record.

You get rolling southern rockers, electric guitar riddled with attitude and twanging hard, and a ton of attitude.

Some of these songs are a damn good time and others are like digging into the parts of your past you wanted to forget about.

It's all gracefully done and with touches of just the right charm and swagger.

Slide guitars played with heart and vocals that belt out loud and make you want to belt right alongside them.