The Suitcase Junket

The Suitcase Junket is multi instrumentalist Matthew Lorenz. Solitary on stage and on the road, Lorenz' mind is crowded with characters, narratives, voices, imagery, sounds as wide and varied as mountain throat singers and roadhouse juke boxes, plus newsreels of the planet's destruction and salvage. A master of musical imagination -- NPR World Cafe The overall sound lands somewhere between the Avett Brothers and early, dirty Black Keys. There is a Tom Waits vibe in the fuzzy megaphone reverb mic, and something ancient, near tribal, in his whistles and moans -- The Boston Globe A living, breathing, throat-singing, road-tested, avant-garde, one-man-band who is in a state of perpetual motion… gutsy, fuzzed-out, groove-laden psych rock – NPR This guy's a maniac — a one-man band, dumpster-guitar-playing maniac. Strumming a salvaged guitar, banging on a box of cutlery, and releasing a dynamite voice, The Suitcase Junket is the real deal — and one of the most electric souls we've ever seen on stage – Mass MoCA's FreshGrass Now this is the shit I'm talking about, Jack. The Suitcase Junket is a lo-fi, low-tuned, low-down blast of end-times folk blues. It's crude; it's magnificent. With a stage set-up that resembles a junkyard foley stage or Fred Sanford's living room, The Suitcase Junket — one man band leader Matt Lorenz — incants and intones like a cross between Hound Dog Taylor and a Tuvan throat singer who has swallowed a bird. Take the singer-songwriter idiom, give it a low grade fever and a guitar and this is what you get. Captivating, mesmerizing, and gone ... real gone – Rochester City Newspaper Jaw-dropping... It’s the biggest sound I’ve ever heard come from a solo performer. Matt is definitely his own thing and it is something. The live experience is pretty, darn unforgettable — Beale Street Caravan Bluesy guitar riffs, tenacious melodies and a singing voice both weathered and nimble. You don’t need to witness his physics-defying performance to be captivated; the music stands on its own... astonishing – WBUR Boston

At once intimate and cinematic, Western MA based indie-folk band Cloudbelly has been recognized by the Kerrville New Folk Competition, New Song at Citizen Vinyl, WBUR tiny Desk Roundup, Signature Sounds Record Label, and their most recent release I know I know I know was hailed by the Boston Globe as one of the best records of 2024.  Cloudbelly is singer-songwriter Corey Laitman, electric guitarist Sam Perry, producer, singer-songwriter and bassist Ciarra Fragale, and polymath producer and drummer, Nate Monschein.