CMAT – When a Good Man Cries
By Alan Shipston for Country Music News International Magazine
CMAT has a new single dropping Thursday August, 28 – When A Good Man Cries from her third album release, EURO-COUNTRY. This fiery redhead continues down the path of her previous releases with lyrics carved from her Irish background and fused with a new country attitude.
The song kicks off with Reid Jenkins fiddle playing over a standard 1-4-5 country progression, but quickly evolves into a heart wrenching search for life’s hardest answers. “I waited for love with a cricket bat”, sets the tone in the opening line and it never lets up after that. Ciara Mary- Alice Thompson asks “What do you do when a good man cries? And you’re the one to keep him up at night.”
CMAT’s vocal drifts through multiple personas and challenges the listener to pay attention in ways that other singers are not willing to explore. The languid melody weaves a story steeped in angst and hope, constantly building towards the stratospheric chorus. With an early Kate Bush style, CMAT takes you on a dream journey discovering the shape of life.
“I would consider this my most country record, as in, steeped in the traditions of country. But neither Oli Deakin, my Producer or I wanted to make something that we’d heard before. If we know that the thing we’re doing already exists, we have to fight against it, and find a more interesting, more beautiful way of making it. So there’s slide guitar and fiddle playing, but to a lot of listeners it will sound not country, but it is! We were just trying to bend the barriers of it a bit.”
The driving rhythm laid down by Morgan Karabel on drums, Oli Deakin on bass, acoustic and electric guitars with Colm Conlan on piano sets the table for CMAT’s soaring vocals. Oli adds in some lap steel and mellotron to find a blend between pop and country. When they hit the 6 minor chord in the chorus, you can feel the pull towards a traditional roots sound blended with an indie rock feel.
The video for When A Good Man Cries merges several visceral images. The band is set up in a grassy field, but quickly shifts to an industrial parking lot with scenes of cars drifting behind them. A mountain of used tires is the backdrop to CMAT’s dance moves while wearing a Suckin’ Diesel t-shirt.
Interview Magazine dubbed CMAT an “Irish born country pop disruptor.” When a Good Man Cries illustrates this perfectly combining tinges of humor with hard hitting truth. It may polarize stone country die hards, but there is a whole world of fans clamoring for something different.
Currently on a sold out tour, CMAT has some hotly anticipated upcoming tour dates in the US. Dates include the Ford Theatre, Los Angeles 9/8, Jimmy Kimmel Live (US TV debut), 9/9, Webster Hall, New York on 9/18 and the Basement East, Nashville on 9/21.