JERSEY: Matt Jordan brings a bit of Jerseyville back home to Rock the Block

PROTECTED CONTENT

If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.

Username

Password

Login

Lost your password?

Username and Password Help

Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.

Email

Submit

← Back

By Steven Spencer

Jerseyville’s Rock the Block is bringing Matt Jordan to town this Friday, Aug. 22, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the corner of Washington and Arch, and Jordan is bringing a little bit of Jerseyville home with him.

As Jordan brings his original heartland rock style of music, he’ll also be bringing his bassist, Byron Beiermann, back home to Jerseyville to showcase just what he’s been up to with the Matt Jordan band.

Bieremann said music has always been an important part of his life and is excited to have a bit of a full-circle moment as he returns to Jerseyville with Matt Jordan to perform at Rock the Block.

“My dad got me into playing music in middle school. Being around Jerseyville, I was always playing country and bluegrass, but as I progressed I kind of branched out and played my own thing,” he said.

Beiermann said after college, he did some touring around the midwest as a drummer and eventually found himself joining Matt Jordan in 2018.

“Music has always been a pretty huge part of my life,” Beiermann said. “I joined Matt in 2018, he’d just moved from Nashville, and we’ve built it into something pretty cool. We’ve opened for some pretty big names, from Travis Tritt, we did Russell Dickerson last July. Some big country names.”

Beiermann said the band has been growing and gaining good attention. Playing for thousands of people wasn’t necessarily something that they planned for, but it’s something he feels every musician almost always dreams of.

“We weren’t even thinking outside of St. Louis at first,” he said about playing big shows and opening for notable musicians. “Then we started to prove ourselves. Very quickly it’s like “Whoa, we’re going to play Indianapolis.” Or “Oh, let’s go play Tulsa.” We started getting some pretty awesome shows and started building a presence.”

Headlining Rock the Block is exciting in more ways than one for Beiermann. There’s a lot of excitement and energy that comes with a hometown show, but Jerseyville will also get to experience the excitement of a full headlining performance from the band and not just catch them opening for a bigger name.

“It’s kind of cool to have a full circle moment and come back to Jerseyville,” Beiermann said, noting that this won’t be their typical show. “We’re going to be up there for two hours. Most of our gigs, kicking off shows for bigger acts, we have 45 minutes and it’s done. It will be cool to stretch out and have a hometown show.”

Beiermann said he’s also excited to have Cash Goetten join them on Friday. He said the band first saw Goetten at the Greene County Fair and is looking forward to bringing the two acts together after learning his father used to play with Goetten’s grandfather.

“We thought this kid is great,” he said. “So we’re going to have Cash open Rock the Block for us. Have him play and come up on stage with us, play a few songs too. It’ll be cool to kind of hand the torch over.

While the band sometimes tends to get put in the country category, Beiermann said fans can expect something much more than just country from their style of heartland rock.

“Matt is more like a modern-day Springsteen, Bob Seager, Tom Petty type of artist. Which if those guys came out today they’d get bucketed into country too. It’s really more about the songwriting, the storytelling and the songwriting. That’s what sets Matt apart.”

Their approach to songwriting and performing tends to lead to more of a rock atmosphere at their live shows.

“Live, we tend to be a little more rock than country, which is a lot of fun,” Beiermann said. “We try and set ourselves apart by being real and raw.”