Who is Matt Warren

Chart-topping songwriter. Solo artist. Multi-platinum award winner. Soul singer. For nearly a quarter century, Matt Warren has played all the parts, building a versatile career that's taken him from the elite writing rooms of Music Row to stages across the country. 

 

He turns a new page with Heartbreak Superstar, his first solo release in a dozen years. Inspired by the R&B classics, soul songs, and southern music of his youth, it's a timeless record for the modern age. Warren's songwriting is on full display, showcasing the chops that have already earned him a pair of ASCAP Awards, an ACM Song of the Year nomination, and a Number 1 hit on country radio. Heartbreak Superstar is a singer's record, though, and Warren — who created the album with co-producers Oscar Charles and Cliff Audretch — delivers each song with a voice that's every bit as raw, road-worn, and resilient as his own journey. 

 

That journey has taken Warren from the top of the Billboard charts — where Gary Allan's "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)" made him one of Nashville's most in-demand songwriters during the 2010s, reaching Number 1 the same year Warren received his self-titled solo debut — to rehab, where he found God and rediscovered himself. As he returned to his Music Row writing appointments during the years that followed, he did so as a sober man. The bulk of Heartbreak Superstar was written during that period of personal and creative rebirth, capturing the renewed clarity of Warren's substance-free life with the melodies and southern stories that have always fueled his best work. 

 

"Dirt Road Runner" is a breezy blast of Tennessee soul and California country-rock, featuring contributions from Warren's co-writers (Maggie Rose and Pat McLaughlin) and instrumentation from instrumentalists like acclaimed bassist Steve Mackey and ACM-winning guitarist Rob McNelley. "When My Baby Cries" finds Warren paying tribute to his wife with a Motown-worthy mix of melody and groove, while "Long Story" combines rags-to-riches storytelling with Muscle Shoals rhythms. It was Rick Hall — the iconic producer behind FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals — who signed Warren to his very first publishing deal in 2002, kicking off a career that would soon find him writing songs not only for some of country music's leading men, but for himself, too. Years later, that balance remains. 

 

"I'm still here making music, 23 years into my songwriting career," Warren says proudly. "In a town where they say 'youth is king,' I'm 49 years old and I haven't stopped living my rock & roll dream in the studio. I'm so grateful to be doing this job. That's what this record is: a snapshot of whom I am right now."

 

And who, exactly, is Matt Warren? He's the former frontman of Papa Joe, the late-'90s act whose fusion of southern rock and Counting Crows-inspired storytelling earned Warren his first fans. He's the solo artist who teamed up with producer Tom Bukovac (Toby Keith, John Oates, Ann Wilson) and members of The Black Crowes to record his first debut in 2013. He's the frontman and chief songwriter of Goodfoot, the short-lived project whose collection of spiritually-minded songs marked his first major release as a newly-sober songwriter. And with Heartbreak Superstar — whose title track has remained a staple of Warren's solo performances  for years, splitting the difference between Laurel Canyon folk and Otis Redding-inspired soul — he's a bridge connecting past and present, updating the vintage vibes of his musical influences for the modern world. 

 

"I grew up in Nashville, listening to southern singers like Aretha, Otis, and The Allman Brothers," he remembers. "I've always loved emotional soul songs, and that sound is still ingrained in me. It's part of my musical DNA. It's what comes out whenever I'm writing something new."

Something new, indeed. Heartbreak Superstar may be fueled by the best parts of the past, but it's a modern record from a songwriting veteran who's happy to reclaim his solo artistry. It's a rallying cry of American roots music. It's Matt Warren at his very best: sharp, soulful, and full of stories.