'Wild year': Pembroke's Matt York took 'Highwaymen' on the road and hasn't looked back

Matt York has had an incredible year. Not only did his latest album, “Gently Used,” earn plaudits and slots on many Best of 2022 lists, but also his one-man tribute to The Highwaymen, where he performs the music of that immortal country outlaw quartet along with their life stories, became kind of a national sensation.  The Pembroke songsmith figures he played 180 gigs in the past year, and he’s rightfully taking most of December off.

Last weekend, York played Friday night at Askew in Providence, opening for Americana artist Florence Dore, and then on Saturday night headlined The Marilyn Rodman Performing Arts Center (formerly The Orpheum Theatre) in his hometown of Foxboro. But a last-minute addition to his schedule also had him doing the one-hour version of his “Songs and Stories: The Highwaymen” show at the Lunenburg Public Library.

“It’s been a wild year,” York said, with a laugh from his Pembroke home, as he spent the rest of the weekend at his "real job," ferrying around his two teenage daughters. “I was averaging eight or nine gigs a week during the summer. It slowed down in the fall a bit, but not really that much. But it’s easy because I’m always doing something I love.”

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We’ve written before about how The Highwaymen project began. York had lost his longtime day job just before the pandemic. He was determined to focus on his music career, where he’d already written and recorded several albums. He’d always been a fan of so-called "outlaw country" and its best songwriters, so while the lack of live dates kept him at home, York threw himself into researching the lives and times of his favorites.

He turned himself into an expert on The Highwaymen and began mastering their hefty songbook. While his trips around the country had shown him that Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson were still popular everywhere, York also loved Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings, and made an effort to make his Highwaymen shows a well-balanced portrait of all four members.

For a final step, York began researching cultural grants for the kind of educational and entertaining events he was envisioning. That soon paid off and once the quarantines ended, York saw his schedule filling up with shows around New England, and especially in Massachusetts. It has made for a remarkable year in his career.

“With the Highwaymen, I’ve developed a collection of over 100 songs I can do, so it’s not like I’m doing the same show every night," York said. "I did most of New England and I’ve also taken it down to Tennessee. I have played Texas and Louisiana before, but not with The Highwaymen show, although I think it is pretty transferable.”

York said The Highwaymen show draws an older audience.

"They are so receptive and appreciative. ... People will come up and chat afterwards, telling me they saw Johnny Cash in 1982 or something. I have journaled every single gig, and at some point, I have to share all these different, wonderful anecdotes I’ve heard.”

Performing all over Massachusetts has given York a new appreciation of the state.

“I’ve explored every exit off Route 2," York said. "I did 31 different towns in Central Mass. alone and there are some remarkably beautiful small towns. The project gave me some amazing experiences and the best part was that I could come home and sleep in my own bed every night. ... I’m at the point where I’m not a van guy or a sleep-on-people’s-couch guy."

York was so busy he didn’t have much time for writing new music, but he already had “Gently Used” finished and that album was released in June. The sessions for that recording also included enough songs for another full album that he hopes to release in 2023. But his plans already include more than that.

“I have a three-pronged plan of things I want to do in 2023,” said York. “I want to do an album of my own songs, but very stripped down and acoustic. That’s how I’ve played the Highwaymen shows and it has given me a new appreciation for performing like that. Then I want to take the basic Highwaymen concept and go back and do an all-Johnny Cash show. Doing an hourlong Highwaymen show, it is very tough to pick out which songs to cover. And there are so many ways you can go with Johnny Cash and his music, so many good ones I couldn’t choose. I’m quite confident I can develop an hour’s show of just Johnny Cash music and also make it enough of a repertoire that I don’t need to repeat the same show every night.

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“Finally, I’m such a fan of the older generation of more obscure honky-tonk guys that I really want to spend some time developing a show built around those guys, like Lefty Frizzell, Hank Snow and Ray Price,” York said. “When I’m driving to all these gigs, I can’t listen to myself so I’ve become obsessed listening to those guys. The most recent one I’ve had on repeat is Johnny Rodriguez.

"I think those songs all work well with my own new originals, so it can fit together when I play normal, non-Highwaymen gigs. I have not written the volume of new music I have in the past, but at this point I have about 100 of my own tunes. Sometimes now, people request one of my old originals and I have to take a minute and think to remember how it goes."

York’s relatively quiet January includes a Highwaymen show Jan. 13 at Green Room 42 in Times Square, New York City, and a gig later in the month at The Aeronaut Cannery in Everett.

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Most people who’ve heard the former Cohasset High football player perform will figure Lance Norris’ “Cancer for Christmas” postings are a comedy bit. But unfortunately, Norris was in fact diagnosed recently with soft tissue sarcoma, a rare form of the disease that has a relatively high rate of survival, but for which the treatment costs are enormous.

Norris is a versatile performer and as an actor you might have seen him in movies such as "Don’t Look Up" or “The Judge," or the TV shows "Politically Incorrect," "Castle Rock" and "SMILF."  As a writer he’s been featured in National Lampoon and published 30 different books of humor, and many fans in this area recall him best for his hilarious bits on WBCN radio.

Norris takes his outrageous humor to the musical stage too, where he fronted The Stools, and now writes his satiric tunes for Lance Norris & Dog Track Gravy.  Most recently, Norris has been involved in directing community theater on Cape Cod, but this recent obstacle forces the father of six to focus on his recovery.

Friends and fans are urged to check out the GoFundMe page for Cancer for Christmas, organized to help defray Norris’ medical expenses. He’s posting updates there and on his Facebook page and taking his typically curmudgeon’s view of the whole thing, so, as impossible as it sounds, you can help him out and get a laugh out of his writing at the same time.

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THURSDAY: Uncle John’s Banjo is a Grateful Dead salute at Soundcheck Studios. Heartland songwriter Meaghan Farrell is worth a trip to The Spire Center. Golden Oak harmonizes at Club Passim. It’s a Deadmau5 weekend in Beantown: they shake up Big Night Live tonight, and headline MGM Music Hall on Friday.

FRIDAY: Los Lobos open a two-night stand at City Winery. Modest Mouse takes over Roadrunner. The Burren has a ‘90s Boston rock revival, with Buffalo Tom, Mary Lou Lord and members of Scruffy the Cat (Scruffy was always a favorite here). Multitalented vocalist Storm Large, on leave from Pink Martini, warms up The Spire Center. Echoes of Floyd nods to Pink Floyd music at Soundcheck Studios. Superb acoustic blues with Kemp Harris at Club Passim. Mr. Brownstone rocks The Sinclair. Canadian songbird Suzanne McNeil returns to Donahue’s Pub in Holbrook. The Good Trees River Band heats up The C-Note.

SATURDAY: The Lemonheads begin a special two-night reunion at The Paradise, and Duxbury’s Juliana Hatfield is one of the openers. Stoughton songsmith Lori McKenna begins her annual holiday string of shows at Club Passim. Guitar phenom Ana Popovic takes over The Spire Center. The Narrows Center offers jam-nation all star Tim Reynolds and his trio. Booty Vortex brings back the Disco Era at The C-Note. Big D and the Kids table, with The Slackers at The Sinclair. The Foals rock Roadrunner. Lil TJ raps at the House of Blues. Guitar icon Duke Robillard at Boston Harbor Distillery. Gypsy Ho-Ho-Hoedown at Soundcheck Studios. The cosmic jangle-rock of Ohio’s Angela Perley at Atwell’s Tavern. Suzanne McNeil’s tour bus pulls into Cabby Shack (Plymouth). Zoe Knight and her Mythical Beasts sounds like fun at The Porch. Rock ‘n’ Roll Playhouse, a Beatles tribute, Brighton Music Hall.

SUNDAY AND BEYOND: Groovy jazz-rock-soul with the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio at Brighton Music Hall on Sunday night. If you missed him at the Music Circus last summer, don’t fret; country star Brett Eldredge headlines the Orpheum Theatre (Boston) Tuesday and Wednesday. A real low-dough gem of a show, all-world guitarist Duke Levine at Atwood's Tavern on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: 180 gigs and a 'wild year' for Pembroke's Matt York and 'Highwaymen'