Matteo – a band from Salt Lake City, but not your traditional Americana band. Matteo refers to themselves as a musical free trade agreement between a Chinese farmer’s market and an American trading post. Matteo spent years meandering through Chinese street markets and mountains, gathering their collection of Chinese traditional instruments and then after lots of practice and play, they began to recreate their own version of a variety of American indie-folk songs.

So what happens when the Guzheng (Chinese harp), the Erhu (Chinese violin), the Ruan (Chinese banjo) create a classic Americana music? A unique hybrid of cultural sounds – for example – Matteo’s cover of Talking Heads – ‘This Must Be the Place’ (Naive Melody).

Matteo’s official SoundCloud
Matteo’s official website.
Matteo’s Kickstarter campaign asking for our help to get them to China for a performance.

Details on the instruments: – The big table-like structure that our bandleader Mr. Chipman is playing is a Guzheng (Chinese zither harp). The little one that Mrs. Chipman is using to play the lead synthesizer parts on is an Erhu (Chinese violin). The round one that the prohibition-era gentleman perched on the counter is playing is called a Ruan (Chinese banjo, or “Ron”). And finally, Luke just plays ‘ol Christopher, his trusty 1/2 size upright bass.