After two decades studying and performing other types of music, Matt Dudman found bluegrass, which tapped a connection with his family roots in Arkansas and Louisiana, and he immediately knew he’d found his final musical ‘home’. After a flash epiphany at the Grand Ole Opry while at school in the south, he went to work right away on his new passion. He met and studied the pre-bluegrass mandolin style under first generation brother-duet singer Bob Lambert and learned to sing close harmony with local New Orleans country music icon Pat Flory. Then back in California he found Kentucky ex-patriot Jake Quesenberry, who fleshed out Matt’s training in first generation traditional southern bluegrass music, while also entrusting to Matt several wonderful all-but-lost and original songs.

While playing with he and Jake’s “MacRae Brothers” (who recorded 3 well received CDs), in the late 1990s Matt also joined bluegrass band “Tall Timber”, and then reformed and managed “Carolina Special” in the early millennium with another ex-patriot southerner, North Carolinian John Murphy. Over the years Matt has also served as a ‘hired gun’ on guitar, mandolin and upright bass for the area’s top bands; and with his own groups, such as Blue Canyon, Matt enlisted his own hotshot sidemen. He has shared the stage across the country, and/or recorded, with Tony Williamson, Kevin Prater (James King Band), Bluegrass Boy Sandy Rothman, Jody Stecher, Ed Neff, Butch Waller & High Country, Bill Evans, Keith Little, Avram Siegel, Tom Bekeney, Paul Shelasky, Mike Wilhoyte, Markie Sanders, Dix Bruce and Jim Nunally, playing events such as the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) ‘Fan Fest’, the CBA Father’s Day Grass Valley Festival (one of the world’s premier bluegrass events), Wolf Mountain and San Francisco Bluegrass Festivals.

Listening to this enthusiastic young Californian, you might mistakenly assume he was raised in the heart of bluegrass music in the deep south (from where his mother and extended family actually hail). His style has developed maturely and tastefully, with solid, rhythmic guitar work inspired by Lester Flatt, Del McCoury and Del Williams, alternately bluesy and sweet mandolin work borrowing from Bill Monroe, Tony Williamson and Mike Compton, and insistent string bass work which references Howard Watts & Jason Moore.

But if it’s one thing Matt has learned, it is that his primary goal while on stage is to entertain. His concerts always pack top quality music into a fast paced, yet fun, stage show. It’s immediately evident that this compelling young talent truly loves, and is single-mindedly fanatical about, bluegrass music. It shows not only in his performances, which will touch your heart and soul, but also back-stage with his enthusiasm and almost encyclopedic knowledge of the genre.

So, for over a decade Matt Dudman has been developing and carrying his vision of carrying on traditional bluegrass on the West Coast, unearthing rare traditional style songs and giving them a neotraditional bluegrass treatment. All the while he has been an innovator on the Northern California scene, being the first bluegrasser to bring back the true single microphone approach, be profiled and post songs to MP3.com, feature a website for a local bluegrass band, start an email mailing list, and to incorporate audio and video into band promotion on his full service (self-built) websites. He is also a contributing writer for Bluegrass Unlimited and other music publications.

Matt uses picks by Guitar Picks from Steve Clayton, Inc. “I like the feel and tone of Clayton’s” he says.