User:Calthai/sandbox

=Matthew Songmaker= Matthew Songmaker is a young violin player from Red Bluff, California (located at the foot of Mount Lassen). He is also a multi-instrument musician and plays the guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, saxophone, accordion, clarinet and auto-harp in addition to doing vocals. He performs frequently at venues throughout Northern California. In addition, he is the violin teacher at Manton Music and Arts Program(CA).

Matthew Songmaker plays traditional fiddle and is also in the violin section of the Shasta College Youth Orchestra. He generally plays with the December Bicyclists. They are musicians from the far North of California and include Eric Hall (bass) and Andre Schuetz (guitarand mandolin). Their playlist consists mainly of Americana - traditional American music from gospel, to bluegrass and country along with some early rock and roll amd blues. Many of the songs are originals written by Songmaker.

=BACKGROUND= Matthew Songmaker was born in Thailand in 1999 and is the son of an American father and Thai mother. His ethnicity includes not only Thai, but also Native Alaskan (Inuit), Cambodian and German. He spent the first six years of his life in Thailand prior to moving to Northern California. His mother has remained in Thailand and he was brought up by his father. His Inuit name is Aglakti which means Songmaker.

He started taking violin lessons at the age of seven and belonged to a school violin group. He also entered local fiddle contests and has won numerous awards. His early training was primarily with fiddle music, including bluegrass and other traditions.

In 2012 his first CD was released and is entitled "Honest Music." All of the tracks are instrumentals, although Songmaker himself is a vocalist at many of his live performances. The music on the CD is primarily Southern Gospel with some traditional fiddle tunes. His second CD was released in 2013 and is entitled "Middle of Nowhere." It has vocals by Songmaker as well as other members of the band. His first originals are also on this disc. They are "Sitting by the River" and "Girl from the Coast."