Meet guitarist Matthew Lee from Songblazers, Cirque du Soleil’s “Journey Into Country Music”
There are few streets in the world with a higher standard of musicianship than you’ll find inside the neon-lit honky tonks on Nashville’s famous Broadway. Even in daylight hours, it’s possible to encounter the kind of breakneck country and rockabilly guitar playing that sets dancefloors alight and makes us lesser mortals feel like we need a lot more practice. But if you think a gig on Broadway looks tough, could you deliver the goods while running around for nearly two hours as part of a one-of-a-kind theatrical production choreographed “down to the inch”?
Cirque du Soleil’s Songblazers is a celebration of country music that “pays homage to its legendary and modern-day trailblazers” and incorporates acrobatics and live music performance. The show debuted earlier in 2024 in Nashville—where else?—and tickets are currently available for performances across the USA including Dallas at the State Fair of Texas. And no show of its kind would be complete without an abundance of Gibson guitars.
We met with Songblazers guitarist Matthew Lee, who talked us through what appears to be one of the toughest but most enjoyable guitar gigs in show business. Lee grew up in Les Paul’s hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and moved to Nashville 16 years ago. Since then, he’s cemented his position as a first-call guitar player, educator, and performer. When Cirque du Soleil reached out to Matthew earlier this year, he felt like it was “a great marriage and a great opportunity.”
“I play country music and love country music,” says Lee. “It’s great that it’s music that I kind of knew, and had played before, interwoven with the theater experience and what Cirque du Soleil can bring to the table. And I’m part of the show, which is awesome.”
However, being part of the show comes with its own unique demands; demands that are way beyond the average studio session or bar gig. “There’s music going on pretty much from the pre-show, literally to the last note,” Lee explains. “In the pre-show, I’m walking around the theatre doing stuff with a J-45™, interacting with the crowd. We’re involved in absolutely every scene, and so that makes it challenging. There’s a lot of guitar-switching, switching patches and stuff like that going on—there’s a lot of music in the show.
“Keep in mind, I’m not just sitting in a chair. For example, I’m in a scene called ‘Bar Fight.’ I’m walking around like a crazy madman, headbanging on a hay bale. You’re constantly active. In the beginning it was like, ‘I’ve already played a lot of these tunes, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.’ Then you throw in lighting cues, understanding the cue that’s in your ear, and understanding that you need to be in a specific place at the right time. The thing for me has been moving and playing at the same time while knowing what’s next in the scene and anticipating what’s coming up because you have to be ready for it.”
As if all that wasn’t enough to think about, many of the songs featured in the show are performed in unfamiliar keys. “Some of the songs I’m definitely used to, but there are some keys that are a little bit different,” Lee reveals. “For example, we do a song called ‘Freight Train.’ I get the chance to do a little Merle Travis style on that, which is fun – it’s an homage, if you will, to someone who was a huge influence on my life, as a player. And we also do ‘Workin’ Man Blues,’ there’s a cool scene for that. But we do it in A flat, so I have fun with that! And you don’t have time to change guitars, so I’m playing it in A flat. Every open-string lick goes out the window!
“I tried to do it with a capo once and I may experiment with that but right now, I’m learning to play in the fun guitar keys of A flat, G flat, D flat, and B flat. But it’s a mind exercise. It’s good; it’s working on my weaknesses and I’ll be good in those keys eventually! But that’s why I signed up. I wanted to grow and expand, not just as a musician but as a human being—getting to know the people, the cast, and the crew; this is going to be a fun group of people to be around. I’ve made some really good friends already and that is a winning combination for me.”
Image: For Matthew Lee, the Les Paul Special covers a lot of ground
In addition to the aforementioned J-45, which Lee uses for all the acoustic parts he plays in the show, he uses two other Gibsons. “I have a 335 for a couple of scenes, and then the predominant part of the second half is a little bit more rocked out,” he says. “I use a TV Yellow Les Paul™ Special for the predominant part of the second half. It covers a lot of territory.”
As much as he loves vintage-style tube amps, for Songblazers, Lee opted for the convenience of a Kemper rig. “There are a lot of transitions, it’s theatrical so it’s almost cinematic at points. You’re playing a texture, you are playing a part, you are being featured, you are playing rhythm—you are doing all those different things. It’s nice to just hit the switch and have a bunch of different things come up.”
Presumably an analog pedalboard would necessitate an awful lot of additional tap-dancing. “It would just look like you were stomping on bugs all gig long! But it’s just like any show; the first city that you’re in, you are dialling stuff in, there’s constant soundchecks. Obviously, sound is a huge part of the show. So the quality control for that—and not just me knowing my part, but me playing a part with the correct tone that’s appropriate for the scene that we’re doing—those are all-important things. The Kemper is still a learning curve and I’m still working on it, but I feel like I have what I need to cover the territory. I have it relatively dialled in for the show already.”
Finally, we wonder what Matthew’s Songblazers highlights have been so far. “I was able to do the soundtrack album for this over at Sound Emporium Studios with people like Sam Bush, Tommy Emmanuel, Dan Tyminski, and Rob Ickes. That’s a pretty awesome thing. To know that I got the chance to play on a song with them, that’s definitely a feather in the cap. But momentum is building. Nashville is the first place we’re at, but we’re going to see all of America over the next 18 months. We’re coming to a town near you!”
Find out more about Songblazers and buy tickets here—Gibson Gazette readers get 20 percent off selected seats.
