Based in North Texas, Matthew Bell & The Next of Kin is quite simply a family affair. Born out of marital good fortune, and bound by a drive for the creative and the authentic.
We are brothers, sons, fathers, husbands. And outside of our Creator, our families are not only the reason why we do what we do, they're the reason why we've been able to achieve any success at all.
At heart, we are storytellers, and whether the story belongs to us or to our fellow man, we strive to offer justice to both the triumph and tribulation of human experience. We must not forget that life is a journey, and we all have a tale that is worth hearing. Our desire is to share those stories with the world.
MBNOK is Matthew Bell, Daren Denniston, Jarod Schmitt, Ben Dobberstein, and Cameron Crowley. Folk-soul with tight harmonies and emotional musicianship, and as entertaining as it is intriguing.
Raquel Lindemann is a modern singer-songwriter with tie-dyed roots. Affectionately known as "Hippie Songbird," her music blends folk-rock sensibilities with Texas harmonies and soulful storytelling.
Scott has been traveling along, singing the songs that exist only in his mind since his childhood. His musical travels, however, have been a lifetime of guitar playing and performance of the great rock, country, folk, blues, and traditional songwriters. About a year ago he redirected the voyage from cover music to his own. New to the local songwriter scene, Scott has been collaborating and performing with other singer/songwriters while writing and recording. He will complete his first album in early 2020.
Critically acclaimed and award nominated DFW singer-songwriter Jud Block heard the siren songs of Eric Taylor, Townes Van Zandt, Brent Best, Jason Molina, and the Scottish poetry of Stuart Adamson and Scott Hutchison, which afflicted him with a love of music at an early age; lacking any vestige of a Puritan work ethic, he learned to play bass and lurked around the Arlington/Fort Worth punk rock scene with a few bands (Elysian Fields/Death Rabbis) until it became clear that fashion had usurped the music's message, and he turned in his Doc Martens; around this time he bought his first acoustic guitar and learned five chords, which he later discovered was two chords too many, but he figured if he ever decided to go into prog rock, he’s covered; after leaving Texas, he didn't play in a band, or solo, again until the outskirts of the new millennium, when he took on bass duties for an all-original blues-rock band (Kenny's New Car) in Orlando, Florida; in 2001, he moved to Charlotte, NC, and formed Cattletruck terrorizing the staid mindset of the financial district for nearly 10 years and released two CDs, Bourbon and Black Crepe and Branches from the Hangin’ Tree, until that beast ran off the road and was left to become one with the Earth in some backwoods pasture; In 2009, he released his first solo CD, Empty Chamber Grace, a solo acoustic collection of dark, gallows humor-infused tales heavily influenced by Townes Van Zandt, Brent Best, Eric Taylor, Tom Russell, Charles Bukowski, and Larry Brown; and in 2012, he released his second CD, Barroom Gravity, which draws from the same influences as the first, but with a bit more flesh on the bones. In 2013, he returned to his home state of Texas armed only with an acoustic guitar and a stash of incisive lyrics; and in 2015, he recorded his third solo CD, Souvenir Reflection, which focused on loss, suicide, and the grieving process.
With a voice referred to as a "wonderful, marvelous instrument", stage presence described as "something you have to experience", and songwriting skills that are "top notch and refreshingly original", Robin Willis is one of the fastest up-and-coming singer-songwriters in Dallas, TX. Robin's vocal and songwriting approach, best exhibited in the Dallas-based Blues-rock band Blues, Love & Trouble, isn't limited to one particular style, but rather, draws on many influences that can't be pegged as one genre, per se. Sometimes mellow and smooth, sometimes gritty and powerful, undertones of blues, rock, and even a little Texas country color Robin's distinct voice. Combined with songs that speak for themselves, each melody unfolds layer after layer of sultry, multi-faceted goodness.