Matt Stillwell

Matt Stillwell, a country singer, songwriter, and guitarist, spent his formative years amid the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, where rural musical traditions took root even as his teenage listening spanned an eclectic pop spectrum that ranged from Garth Brooks to Guns N’ Roses. At Western Carolina University he competed in baseball and received All-Southern Conference recognition. After relocating to Nashville in pursuit of a music career, he forged relationships with several of the city’s premier players, musicians who would subsequently appear on his first album. Rather than hold out for a major-label deal, he took to the road across the South armed only with his guitar and steadily cultivated an audience. On his own Still 7 Records imprint he issued the self-released Take It All In on June 13, 2006. Two years afterward came Shine, whose title track served as the theme song for the two-day music festival Stillwell founded and named Shinefest. Conceived as a yearly gathering, the first edition of Shinefest took place in 2008 at Fontana Dam, NC.