Vocals & Chords
for Matt Roach

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

Ask Matt Roach what kind of music he plays and he struggles to come up with an answer.
Roach isn’t a pop singer, and his music isn’t pure rock ‘n’ roll or folk.
"I’m a guy with an acoustic guitar" is the way he labels himself.
Roach, who lives in Bustleton with his wife Jolanta and their German short-haired pointer, Bo Ann Szweda, further describes his sound as "band songs without a band."
The singer-songwriter and self-taught guitarist recently released his third album, Borrowed Time, and keeps a busy schedule of live shows up and down the East Coast. He has opened for Marshall Crenshaw, Tommy Conwell, Steve Forbert, Steve Poltz, Hamell on Trial and Asylum Street Spankers.
"I’m lucky enough to do this for my job," he said. "People are willing to book me, and I’m lucky enough to open for musicians who are known."
Roach, 35, has written about 500 songs, including 100 comedy tunes he used as part of an original sketch comedy group.
His two previous albums are titled What Could Have Been . . . and The Santa Songs.
The current album includes one 1990s-era comedy song, A Husband’s Daydream, in which an angry husband brags he has O.J. Simpson’s telephone number, but his enthusiasm is tempered when he learns his wife has Lorena Bobbitt’s number.
But most of the other tunes on the 14-song album were written after Roach’s mom, Dorothy, died in February 2006 after a fall down her basement stairs.
Roach was ready to record the songs in the spring but developed a case of bronchitis that made him sound like a cross between Joe Cocker and Max from Hart to Hart. He got better soon and went into his home studio.
Roach didn’t want the album to be depressing, but tried to convey a message that we’re all living on borrowed time.
"You don’t know how much time you have," he said. "Make the most of the time you have."
Roach, who lives on Nester Street, is happy with the album and celebrated its release on June 22 at the Hinge Café in Port Richmond.
The show was two seats short of a sellout, and the musician can’t help but think that the pair of empty chairs in front of the stage represented the loss of his parents. James Roach, like his wife, died suddenly, suffering a heart attack more than 20 years ago.
Roach honors his parents by including their 1955 wedding picture on the back of the compact disc. He’s pictured on the front in their bedroom.
The songs include such titles as There’s Always Tomorrow (Until There’s Not) and Moving Day, about the agony of selling his boyhood home on Aldine Street in Mayfair after his mom died.
On The Ride, Roach recalls how he’d see his mom in the rearview mirror of his car as she sat in the back seat on the drive to his shows.
Then there’s Call Your Mom, in which he urges people to spend some time with their mothers. "It’s a day out of your schedule," he sings at one point in the song. "It can make her whole year."
Roach has received positive feedback on the album. "People who’ve bought it and listened to it have liked it," he said.
Roach has no agent or manager, figuring that whomever he’d hire wouldn’t work as hard for him as he will. His biggest supporter is his new bride. The two, who’ve been together for 10 years and were engaged for the last three, were married on June 26 on the beach in Florida.
The artist does his own booking, media outreach and merchandise sales. His gigs have taken him as far north as New England, and he hopes to break into the Southern market.
"I hope to keep touring and expanding the parameters," he said.
The songs on his MySpace page get about 200 plays a day, and he welcomes fans to check out his upcoming schedule at www.mattroachmusic.com
Ideally for him, radio stations that receive his album will play one or more songs on the air. Recently, the song Next Ex-Girl, from an earlier album, was played on Hometown Heroes on WSTW (93.7 FM).
Roach, though, isn’t sitting idly by waiting for radio play. He’s busy trying to make himself a better musician. He’d like to improve on the piano and has been doing some guitar-picking.
"I’m not exactly Woody Guthrie yet," he joked.
That’s OK with Roach. He’d love to have the best guitar and vocal skills of anyone in the industry, but he also prefers his own style.
"I don’t want to sound like anybody else," he said. "I want to be original. I never play cover songs. I don’t know any." ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com