MATTHEW LARSEN

Over at MassLive.com, I am the Featured Download this week. Head on over to download your copy of You Were A Cynic and Other States. They were recorded back when Mr. State Shirt himself was in town. He even played the melodica on Other States.

Lyrics to You Were A Cynic:

You were a cynic when I knew you long ago, but since then things have changed somewhat. Some years have passed and now you find yourself alone. Your time at home is bittersweet. In time, the failures that you hid inside yourself and hopes you have will coexist. But every hourglass you smashed against the wall has somehow failed to prove your point. Has somehow failed to prove your point.

Lyrics to Other States:

Every single friend of yours has moved to other states. Now every lonely evening feels the same. Who will listen to you? ‘Cause you have burned some bridges and have stepped over loose change. And now you have no-one to call who will listen to you. No one who will listen to you.

When Ethan visited Western Mass. back in October, we spent a couple of days recording two short songs and one not as short song…

You Were A Cynic (1:56)

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Other States (1:12) with Ethan on melodica

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Fight Or Flight (3:14)

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The new State Shirt cd, This Is Old was released just last month. Ethan has been busy promoting that and also scheming up some shows for himself. He and I are trying to get some sort of Matthew Larsen / State Shirt / ??? tour happening in late Spring…

On my Veteran’s Day commute into Springfield, Massachusetts to start another work day in my cubicle, this story caught my attention on NPR.

It features a woman named Taryn Davis, who her lost her husband, a soldier. She was 21 at the time. Feeling alone and frustrated, she set out to find other women in similar situations. She connected with other widows, and a documentary video entitled The American Widow Project was born. She hopes to include in the binder of information that the military provides to widows.