Matt Novak’s late 2004 debut, Ten Valley, firmly places him in the ranks of contemporary American singer/songwriters. The whole album is a profound and unassuming gem among the all-too-often hasty of world of modern-day music releases. The release of Ten Valley is the culmination of two years of songwriting, and another year of recording. The final result is an album that proves the careful attention paid to every aspect of each song, never really leaving the listener, but unraveling him/her to the very core of love found and lost, quests of the spirit, parental abuse, homelessness, homecomings, the listless, jailbound, and the broken-hearted. Each song is delicately arranged and enriched by sparse instrumental combinations just full enough to support Matt’s emotive heartfelt voice.
