Motor folk-rock Americana born of an excess of beverages, Poor Player is a five piece band that takes to the stage with barrel house rambles, neo Dustbowl yodels, and a hopped up grab bag of American riddles and laments. Saluting the guy flying a sign beside the highway exit, zigzagging through the post-industrial prairie, Poor Player is all about finding the roots beneath the rubble, the green beneath the ruin, the country blues in the pothole concrete, the folk in the f***d up, and the beauty in the city gone to seed. In January 2015 they self-released their debut full length album, High Holy Hills.
Singer-songwriter Matt Fredericks formed Poor Player in 2011, inspired by the likes of Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt and underground psyche-folk legend Rodriguez. Rediscovering the Detroit cityscape by way of wayward roots music, the Rustbelt revivalist wilderness becomes foundation for a sort of mutant country, dirt-road-soaked-in-car-battery-acid-with-a-sunflower-sprouting-out-of-it vision of folk music grace. Fred Vitale, longtime Michigan Green Party activist, translates political consciousness into rollicking barrelhouse romps worthy of Memphis Slim, journeyman drummer Stu Tucker provides percussive range from broke down ballads to manic gut bucket stomps, guitarist Brian Simon rounds out graffitied melodies with a flavor of greasy New York art punk and Detroit music veteran Mark Biermann locks down the low end with an irrepressible smirk.
"Americana-ish folk rockers whose fondness for beautifully hypnotic soundscapes, cheeky couplets and dad's old country 45's can be very Dylan at times-- equal parts the Lanois stuff and Highway 61". —Detroit Metro Times
"Poor Player travel a rocky country road, bumping and bouncing as they head into High Holy Hills. The Detroit based band is a righteous, matter-of-fact honest, Indie collective." –The Alternate Root