Album Review – Matt Daniel’s “The Poet”

Reviews 19 Comments


#510 (Traditional country) on the Country DDS.

It’s really a shame that the performers who decide they want to be famous first, and then figure out the music part later are the ones eating catering in the bowels of arenas before shows and then flying home the same night on a private jet. Meanwhile those pursued by country music almost like a curse who write and sing it because they have no other choice, they often scrape by at best, and despite their relative obscurity, can still suffer from imposter syndrome and feel selfish for even calling themselves musicians.

Matt Daniel is one of those latter artists, clearly touched (or cursed) by the need to perform country music to unburden his soul, but blessed with immense talent to write and express it—including a voice expertly tooled for the trade. And yet, promoting himself or making some big spectacle of his music is the antithesis of everything he stands for. As he sings in the opening song of his new album, “I guess what I’m trying to say is I feel unqualified.”

But ladies and gentlemen, Matt Daniel is most certainly qualified to be a country music artist.

Daniel made it onto the musical map of many with his previous album All I’ll Ever Need from 2022, especially the song “Weatherman” that burrowed deep in our souls, and has refused to leave since. The Poet picks up where that last album left off, including another one of those one-in-a-million masterpiece country songs with an incredible melody called “Long Way Home” to close out the album.


Similar to the graphite-sketched cover art, there’s nothing fancy or frilly about what Matt Daniel does on The Poet. It’s just honest by-God country music, with nine songs exploring the seasons of Matt’s life and the emotions he experienced while in the midst of them, with co-writers Nate Fredrick and Nathan Chapman helping him with a word or two along the way.

Though you want to obsess over the songs and Matt’s stellar vocal delivery, The Poet also happens to be a perfect instrumental specimen of country music on top of everything else. Fiddle, steel guitar, lead guitar, it all understands the gravity of what Matt Daniel is attempting to do here, and makes sure to rise to the occasion. The song “Keepin’ Me Alive” gives off strong ’90s Clint Black vibes. But sensing that a 3 1/2-minute song isn’t enough, the studio band gets to stretch it into six.

Along with the aforementioned song “Long Way Home” whose only sin is coming in the final slot on the track list as opposed to the first, The Poet also contains another incredible song on the next to last track called “Brand New Start.” Even the agnostics out there will be hard-pressed to not feel moved by Matt Daniel’s words of devotion—and like all the other songs on the album—how he sings them.

Matt Daniel is a man and a voice that in previous eras the world would’ve risen up to support, put on a tour bus and big stages all across this land, and parade around like a hero. Now it’s up to us—the true fans of country music—to rise up and sing his praises, tell our friends and neighbors, and if nothing else, make sure he finds enough support to sing the next song, play the next show, and record the next album.

Because Matt Daniel doesn’t do this because he wants to. He does it because he needs to. And country music needs voices and songwriters like Matt Daniel.

1 3/4 Guns Up (8.2/10)

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The Poet was produced by “Banjo” Ben Clark and Matt Daniel.

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