William Matheny (also known as Billy Matheny) is an American singer-songwriter from

Morgantown, West Virginia Morgantown is a city in and the county seat of Monongalia County, West Virginia, Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States, situated along the Monongahela River. The largest city in North-Central West Virginia, Morgantown is best known as th ...

. Matheny was also a multi-instrumentalist for

Southeast Engine Southeast Engine is an indie-folk-rock band from Athens, Ohio. With the help of The Wrens, the band signed with Misra Records in 2007 and released their first internationally distributed album later that year. Their music has seen critical accla ...

and is currently a keyboardist and guitarist for

The Paranoid Style The Paranoid Style is an American, Washington, D.C.-based garage rock band led by the husband-and-wife duo of Elizabeth Nelson and Timothy Bracy. Formed in 2012, the band is named after Richard J. Hofstadter's 1964 essay ''The Paranoid Style in Am ...

. His musical style has been compared to the likes of

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and new wave,Marshall Crenshaw Marshall Howard Crenshaw (born November 11, 1953) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for hit songs such as " Someday, Someway," a US top 40 hit in 1982, " Cynical Girl," and "Whenever You're on My Mind." He i ...

, and

The Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks w ...

’

Jonathan Richman Jonathan Michael Richman (born May 16, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded the Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic a ...

Early life

Born in 1984 in Mannington, West Virginia, he is the grandson of Mansfield Matheny, lead singer for The Rhythm Rascals. His great-grandfather was a gospel singer and his father was a bluegrass guitarist. Matheny claims to have been performing with bands as a guitarist since the age of nine. He became the drummer of Cheap Truckers’ Speed as a teenager, eventually moving to Morgantown and becoming a musician-for-hire.

Musical career

In 2008, Matheny joined The Joe Prichard Band, the front man was Joe Prichard of the band called The Recipe, Matheny would play electric guitar and banjo. Matheny then joined the band Southeast Engine as a pianist and organ player. He remained with the band until it went on "indefinite hiatus" at the end of 2012. Since that time, Matheny has continued to serve as a musician for The Paranoid Style (featuring Timothy Bracy of The Mendoza Line and Slow Dazzle) and Todd Burge, among others. He and his band have been writing and recording the album that would eventually become Strange Constellations since 2013. Matheny has appeared on the

West Virginia Public Broadcasting West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) is the public television and radio state network serving the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is owned by the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Authority, an agency of the state government that holds the li ...

program

Mountain Stage ''Mountain Stage'' is a two-hour music radio show, first aired in 1983, produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed worldwide by National Public Radio (NPR). Hosted by Larry Groce from the show's inception until 2021 and current ...

a total of four times to date, both as a solo artist and as a member of a band.

Current live band members

* Adam Meisterhans—guitar * J. Tom Hnatow—guitar * Bud Carroll—guitar * Jeremy Batten—keyboard * Ian Thornton—

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* John R. Miller—

* Rod Elkins—drums * Sean Hallock—drums * Clint Sutton—drums

Discography

As Billy Matheny

* ''Billy Matheny'' (self-released, 2004) * ''Born of Frustration'' (self-released, 2006) – sometimes credited to "Billy Matheny & The Frustrations"

With Southeast Engine

* ''Canary'' (Misra Records, 2011) * ''Canaanville'' (Misra Records, 2012)

With The Paranoid style

* ''The Power of Our Proven System'' (Misra Records, 2013) * ''The Purposes of Music in General'' (Misra Records, 2013) * ''Rock & Roll Just Can't Recall'' (Battle Worldwide Recordings, 2015) * ''Rolling Disclosure'' (Bar/None Records, 2016) * ''Underworld U.S.A.'' (Bar/None Records, 2017)

As William Matheny

* ''Blood Moon Singer EP'' (self-released, 2016) * '' Strange Constellations'' (Misra Records, 2017) * ''Moon Over Kenova'' (Misra Records, 2018) * ''Flashes & Cables/Christian Name 7"'' (Misra Records, 2018)

References

External links

Official Website

"Living Half to Death" on NPR's Mountain Stage

William Matheny at Misra Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matheny, William American male singer-songwriters Living people 1984 births Guitarists from West Virginia American male guitarists 21st-century American singers 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male singers Misra Records artists Bar/None Records artists Singer-songwriters from West Virginia American rock singers American male pop singers