A country way of life, Episode 24 (Matt Chamberlain, Ryan Vojtesak, Hunter Phelps)
Author: Jonny Brick.
Player: Matt Chamberlain
A few episodes ago I praised JR Robinson for picking an eclectic range of drumming jobs. This week I’m doing the same for Matt Chamberlain, whose CV is just as packed with stars.
They range from big names like David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan to cult ones like Frank Ocean, Fiona Apple, Brandi Carlile and Tori Amos, who is his most durable collaborator. He also played drums on Love Song by Sara Bareilles, I Try by Macy Gray and One Headlight by The Wallflowers, which Billboard declared the top song in the Triple-A (AAA) rock format.
Given this pedigree, Chamberlain has also worked in Nashville, sitting behind the drumkit on sessions for country music’s rockier acts including Martina McBride, Sugarland, Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, Sara Evans and Carrie Underwood.
He also contributed to three of Miranda Lambert’s albums, Four The Record, Platinum and The Weight of These Wings, which means he drives the rhythm on songs like Mama’s Broken Heart, Vice and We Should Be Friends.
Songwriters: Ryan Vojtesak & Hunter Phelps
Morgan Wallen does not succeed in a vacuum; just as George Strait needed Dean Dillon, so the most commercially successful country artist of the post-Taylor Swift era relies on songwriting lieutenants. Hardy and Ernest have built solo careers of their own, and a third big hitter is also key to his brand.
Perhaps because of his surname, Ryan Vojtesak also goes by the alias Charlie Handsome. Born in Atlanta, he came to country via hiphop, rising to prominence by simultaneously shaping the sound of Khalid and Post Malone. It ought to be added that Kanye West, whose song Fade he also worked on, is a key influence on his sound.
The Charlie Handsome sound has been described as a mix of ‘folk, emo and hiphop’ which he has brought to contemporary country music to keep it fresh and closer to what is going on in pop music. Three such tunes are Downtown’s Dead by Sam Hunt, I Love My Country by Florida Georgia Line and This Town’s Been Too Good To Us by Dylan Scott.
The Wallen cuts he contributed to on his second album Dangerous include This Bar, Heartless, Still Goin Down, Blame It On Me and Wasted On You, many of which use the sort of loops common to his work with hiphop acts. Building on this success he is credited on 14 of the 36 tracks that make up One Thing at a Time, including the title track, the Allman Brothers-indebted Everything I Love and the 16-week Hot 100 number one Last Night.
As this piece goes live, Vojtesak is in the middle of what might be another enormous run at the top of the charts, as one of eight writers on I Had Some Help, which brings together two of his many clients.
Born in Florida, Hunter Phelps, whose surname is much more easy on the eye and mouth than Vojtesak’s, is a protégé of Ashley Gorley, who signed him to his Tape Room Music publishing company. Phelps’ name can also be spotted within the credits of several country chart-toppers: I Don’t Know About You for Chris Lane, Best Thing Since Backroads for Jake Owen, New Truck for Dylan Scott, Cold Beer Calling My Name for Jameson Rodgers and Thinkin Bout You for Dustin Lynch.
Having been part of the Florida Georgia Line camp alongside Hardy, for whom the pair wrote the number one Talk You Out of It, Phelps worked with Hardy on his own album The Mockingbird & the Crow. He is credited with nine tracks across both its country and rock sides: on the former Beer, Drink One for Me and the magnificent I in Country; on the latter Truck Bed, .30-06 and the screamo tune Sold Out. The biggest of the nine is Wait in the Truck, Hardy’s collaboration with Lainey Wilson that he calls his career song.
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