Blues giants honour tragic Sussex musician Matt Long on tribute album
A remarkable line-up of artists and performers remember and celebrate West Sussex musician Matt Long on a tribute album entitled With a Little Help From My Friends.
Matt, frontman and guitarist for multi award-winning blues rock band Catfish, died from bowel cancer in October 2024 aged just 29.
His mum Fiona Long, from Wisborough Green, said: “Some of his friends in the blues and blues rock worlds in the UK and US have come together to do a tribute album to Matt – a 16-track double album of his own songs performed by some incredible artists. All the profits from the album will go to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford who cared for Matt during his illness.”
The album features contributions from Joe Bonamassa, Walter Trout, Elles Bailey, Paul Jones, The Cinelli Brothers, Blue Nation, Sean Webster, When Rivers Meet, Brave Rival, Will Wilde, Zac Schulze, Alice Armstrong, Dom Martin, Chantel McGregor, Katie Bradley, Dudley Ross, Adrienne Cowan of Avantasia, Nic Meier and Nat Martin.
Together they offer a heartfelt collection, with each offering their own unique interpretation of Matt’s music to honour his life and his musical journey. It all adds up to a powerful testament to the impact Matt had on the blues and rock community in the UK and beyond. The album is released on March 20.
The closing track and title track With a Little Help from My Friends is taken from the live finale of the benefit gig for Matt at the Stables, Milton Keynes, in June 2024 which turned out to be Matt’s final performance.
“It’s a beautiful way to close the album and it sums up the sense of community that is threaded throughout this record,” Fiona said.
Fiona said she had found the album a bit of a positive distraction for the last 12 months since losing Matt. It came about through a friend who was also a musician and who works closely with Joe Bonamassa’s second guitarist.
“Joe Bonamassa was very much Matt’s musical hero. We met him several times and our friend said why don't I approach him to see if we could get Joe to play on one of Matt’s original songs. Over the last year or so of Matt's life we had some benefit concerts to help raise money for extra treatments to try everything to save his life. There were several big events throughout the country with the top people in the UK taking part because we were friends with a lot of them. It was nice that we had those contacts already and I just randomly approached them to see if they would be interested in doing the album. And they were.”
Blues Rock Review has described the record as ‘a project born from friendship and love,’ and speaks of how the tragic loss of Matt has brought the blues rock world together in the most moving of ways.
Fiona added: “Special mentions to Dan Lucas of Joplin House Studios in Kent who allowed the artists to use his studios free of charge and also mixed much of the album, to Matt’s close friend and former writing partner Alice Armstrong who has produced a very special album cover, and to Elles Bailey who has masterminded the digital campaign for the album.
“Matt would have been overwhelmed with the amount of love that has gone into this project from his friends in the music community. Being able to use the money raised from the sale of this album to help other cancer patients in some small way makes his loss a little easier to bear. We are so immensely grateful to every single person who has contributed their time and talent to producing this album, and know it will be a fitting tribute to Matt.”