Matt Turk has been a very busy guy since the release of his latest album "American Preservation" which was released in May of 2010. The album has received positive affirmations in the Folk community & has been played on a regular basis on many radio stations around the country.
Read more on thenoisebeneaththeapple.com...
The Coachman Family Center in White Plains is home to approximately 100 Westchester families who are living in poverty.
"Poverty is a very difficult place to live," said Matt Turk of Hastings-on-Hudson. "But without art", says Turk, "life's complexities are tough enough to bear".
With that in mind, the Coachman's Story Arts Program was created for the shelter's children — and Turk is doing his part. Read more...
"the rootsy rendition of "America the Beautiful" arguably could be considered the definitive acoustic version." Read more...
This an interesting left turn for Matt Turk, a countrified modern-ish Americana album of cover tunes that cover a wide spectrum and diverse musical field. Read more...
Matt Turk at the Living Room
January 7, 2011
by Ben Robinson www.illusiongenius.com
"Belting blues, softly breaking your heart with a range that is worthy of Aaron Neville, Turk can, and does, it all."
Read more here...
American Preservation
"Modern Americana feel & a late '60s southern California country-rock flavor throughout.
Turk taps into his inner Gram Parsons and dresses up some classics in Nudie suits and desert dust. Deft!"
- Crispin Kott, Roll Magazine
Read more here –>

November 21, 2010 in honor of Woody Guthrie's message when asked, "Which religion?" Woody said, "All or None," Nora Guthrie, Rabbi Mark Sameth, Lisa Jane Lipkin,
Lowry Hamner, Matt Turk & the Pleasantville Clergy Association gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving and give thanks together.
Matt accompanied Nora Guthrie alongside Lowry Hamner and Rabbi Mark Sameth.
Read more here –>
Venture Out: Matt Turk Tunes into Paris
By: Ilana Donna Arazie, Downtown Dharma -- Find Zen in the City
On August 26th 2010, Matt Turk took the stage underground in the cavernous La Pomme d'Eve in Paris' University of Sorbonne district.
Read more here –>
"American Masterpiece!"
-Catherine Michaels
Night Rhythms on 100.7 WHUD
Weekdays 7pm-midnight
The Noise Beneath The Apple:
Where The Sky Kisses The Dirt
-Heather Jacks
And then there's the concept of preserving culture and tradition, the ability to exchange ideas in a free environment, free speech, First Amend ment Rights.
Read more here.
Seeger Joins the Young in Song and Hope
The Rivertowns Enterprise | Dec. 10, 2009 | by Iris Hisky Arno
Close to 400 people packed South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, NY on December 10, 2009
to raise their voices in song with the legendary folk singer and lifelong activist who has been a Hudson Valley resident for 60 years.
Onstage with a passel of kids – members of the recently formed Take Me To The River Community Chorus with youngsters hailing
from Hastings and the Coachmen Family Center in White Plains. Their leaders – Hastings folk musicians Jenny Murphy and Matt Turk
– were on hand to lead the singing, encourage and strum guitar and mandolin.
Read the entire article here.
The Journal News April 30, 2009 by Mary Shustack
They Keep the Circle Unbroken
Photo: Joe Larese/The Journal News
Tribes Hill musicians Anthony da Costa, Matt Turk, Fred Gillen Jr., KJ Denhert, Kathleen Pemble and Steve Kirkman will be performing each
other's songs. Tribes Hill has made quite an impact beyond its local start, says John Platt of WFUV 90.7 FM. It now features more than 100
official Hudson Valley members, but extends to a larger community. "What's happened, I think, in a way, is it's spun out from Westchester,"
Platt, host of WFUV's folk-oriented "Sunday Breakfast" show says. "It has created this rippled effect throughout the metropolitan area."
Read more...
Lucid Culture Concert Review Beefstock 2009
The revelation of the evening was Gillen and Turk. To say that their whole is greater than the sum of the parts is in their case an actual
compliment, Fred Gillen Jr.'s fiery lyricism and old school Americana folk songwriting is a perfect complement to Matt Turk's soulfully
virtuosic acoustic guitar and mandolin work. The best song of the whole festival was a new number possibly titled "Dear Mr. President," an
absolutely spot-on critique. "Dear Mr. Governor, did you really call on her to comfort you in your hour of need?" Gillen and Turk asked the
crowd, to considerable laughter. The song's last verse celebrated that "it's really great, the votes were really counted in 2008!" The duo
also held the increasingly celebratory crowd hushed through the dark 9/11 blowback ballad "We All Fall Down," then an oldtimey number where
Turk mimed a muted trumpet and got the audience going with an increasingly complicated call-and-response, and a cover of Leonard Cohen's
"Hallelujah" that had some of the audience in tears.

"pointed, socially conscious songs bolstered by some impressive musicianship"
Greg Haymes, Times Union
Albany, NY February 26, 2009
"Backs to the Wall is a strong, confident work of folkish-rootsy rock with political and social consciousness."
Mac McDonald: Getting Jazzed
The Monterey County Herald, Go!
January 2009
"...unvarnished social commentary with folkified hoot-and-holler melodies"
– Sing Out! Fall 2008
"Humanitarian. Songs about people and about living and getting along and those good folk traditions of standing up and speaking out."
– Maija Morton, KUMD Duluth, MN
Todd Rundgren at the Tarrytown Music Hall
Box of Textures Blog 10.11.08 By Seth Elgart
Opening the show was Gillen and Turk. They've played all up and down
the Hudson River Valley, doing both electric and acoustic shows. I hadn't
heard of them before, but I thoroughly enjoyed them and bought Backs to
the Wall , their latest CD, in between their set and Todd's. They played
a relatively short acoustic set and were darn good.
Gillen & Turk's "Backs to the Wall" well crafted and filled with hope
Daily Freeman Kingston, NY 7.11.08 By David Malachowski
Well-executed harmonies can be transforming, and the duo Gillen & Turk inherently knows that.
The Hudson Valley's Fred Gillen Jr. and Matt Turk have put together a CD of not only finely crafted songs sung well, but filled with hope. They've put their time in - underground for the MTA in Manhattan, as well as at Pete Seeger's "Circle of Song" tent at the Great Clearwater Music and Arts Festival.
Former solo artists, Gillen and Turk combined their efforts with spectacular results. An alt-country cosmic cowboy sound is revealed in the 12 tracks here, from the open air "These Nameless Streets," the sunny Grateful Dead-like vibe of "It Really Matters," the urgent, politically charged "Black Hills" and the free-flowing "Come Away With Me."
"Peace Rant" recalls early Dylan in more ways than one, while "Killing Machine" has an almost Clash-like anxiety.
This work is not frivolous love songs, but topical and thought-provoking tunes, like the music we loved years ago.
A moving first effort by a promising pair.
The World According to Wawrzyniak
GILLEN & TURK - Backs to the Wall
Tuneful and lulling, with a nice folksy pop-rock sound and equally engaging reflective sensibility to it, this album automatically wins the listener over on the basis of its
gently melodic quality alone. Fred Gillen Jr. and Matt Turk harmonize beautifully well together on the lead vocals; their two voices blend seamlessly into a lovely and
arresting whole that's an absolute pleasure to hear. Moreover, these two New York City-based guys are very fine and thoughtful songwriters.
Whether it's the sweet charm of the opening track "These Nameless Streets," or the bubbly vitality of the bouncy "It Really Matters," this album delivers one delightful
song after another. Some songs rock a bit harder than others ("Fall Down" in particular has a strong socking beat to it), but every last one hits the pleasingly dulcet
spot just the same. A wonderfully radiant little gem.
- Joe Wawrzyniak, Jersey Beat
The Celebrity Café
Backs to the Wall is an eclectic mix of the familiar and the slightly exotic. Reminiscent of great musicians like Bob Dylan and the Beatles,
Gillen & Turk are both poets and political commentators, and their statements are framed by top-notch playing and original instrumentation.
Read more here.
Duluth News Tribune | The Wave May 29, 2008
Singin' some social commentary
Fred Gillen and Matt Turk sing folk music that rests on commitment. They sing a lot of social-commentary songs.
They're young, but their politics are those of the first generation of politicized folk singers. The music needs no apology, they're fine musicians.
Acoustic Live
March 2008, in Acoustic Live, about Gillen & Turk, Richard Cucarro says "Two folk-rock musicians had travelled almost parallel paths
to arrive at the same destination. Their rafter-raising shout-outs for peace and social justice combine influences
from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. How they got there speaks to their foundations, their integrity
and their gritty determination as well as their talent." Read more here.
The music here (Washington Arms) is actually very catchy, with well-written melody lines that are hummable (or to have arms waving in the air in an audience situation).
His voice is easily matched to this sound. There's even a cover of "I'd Love to Change the World". The chorus for the last cut, "Sky", can easily stay in your mind well after the CD is over. I'm sure this may have shown up on MTV, when they still played music.
When solo artists team up, it's really....rockin'
BY MATT SARTWELL
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Read the whole review here.
Gillen & Turk Play Grand Central Station
Fred Gillen Jr. and Matt Turk won a coveted spot in the Metropolitan Transit
Authority's Music Under New York program this May, 2007. The auditions were
covered in the national and major New York media.
News of the washboard and
harmonies went out over the Associated Press newswire reaching Hong Kong,
Singapore and who knows where else. Fred and Matt will be performing for
straphangers in the subways this summer. Check the gigs page for details.
Turk, a songwriting 'balladeer,'
BY JAMES O'ROURKE FOR THE JOURNAL NEWS
Friday, April 6, 2007
"To say that Turk's music has one distinctive feel would be impossible. At times his music is highly introspective and folksy, yet for the most part, his tunes are well-crafted rock songs that are
impossible not to relate to on some level." Read more here.
Matt Turk Makes His Mark:
WCT Interview by Dara Sliwinski.
June 2006
"Turk delivers poignant lyrics with solid artisanship coupled with a powerful, dynamic voice.
It is his ability to charm that allows Turk's music to reach a wide variety of audiences, both young and old."
Read the entire article here.
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