Unexpected, unplanned moments often yield the most beautiful results. That’s how Mat Kearney arrived at his sixth album, January Flower, a collection of honest, stripped down songs that brings the Nashville-based, Oregon-born musician back to his singer-songwriter roots.

January Flower recalls Kearney’s early work on his gold-selling album Nothing Left To Lose, veering in a different direction from his 2018 album CrazyTalk. The album was also inspired by his acoustic tour in the fall of 2019 to promote the 10th anniversary of The City of Black and White, which was the last time Mat was on the road before everything shut down in the pandemic. His vast touring history, which includes treks with John Mayer, Sheryl Crow and NEEDTOBREATHE, is evident in the vibrancy of the songs, as is his enduring success as a recording artist. The musician has released five albums in the Billboard Top 200, with three in the Top 20, and has seen his dynamic songs placed on Grey’s Anatomy, 30 Rock and NCIS. Overall, he has over 2.5 billion global streams. It’s been a long and winding path to where Mat is now, but it’s a journey he’s happy to still be taking.

“I’m most proud of how I didn’t compromise and stuck to my guns on making something that wasn’t paying attention to a trend,” Mat says of January Flower. “It was about what kind of music I really wanted to hear right now. It was about digging down and finding the innocence that comes with wanting to make music solely for the love and passion of doing it. I wanted to stay true to that voice. The time encapsulated in this two weeks in Joshua Tree was very reflective of my own heart. I needed to be emotionally brave. And by doing that, I get to lead people into their own vulnerability. That’s one of the gifts I want to bring to my music. Music can give you freedom and life, and I hope to lead people through their own inner world as I delve into my own.”

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