Crys Matthews is one of the most compelling voices in contemporary folk and Americana. Raised in Richlands, North Carolina and now based in Nashville, she writes from the intersections of Southern identity, faith, race, queerness and belonging with a voice that is warm, fearless and deeply rooted.
A preacher’s daughter raised in the African Methodist Episcopal tradition, Matthews grew up listening to gospel, country, soul and bluegrass, learning early how a song could move a congregation as powerfully as a sermon. She began her formal musical training on clarinet in sixth grade and studied music education at Appalachian State University, once expecting to become a high school band director. A college fill-in keyboard performance changed that course. Asked to sing an original song at a campus gig, she began writing in earnest, won a talent competition and discovered the direction that would shape her life.
Her music draws from folk, blues, country, Americana and gospel, carrying influences that range from Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin to the bluegrass country surrounding Appalachian State. Guitar became her essential road instrument, but her songs retain the musical breadth of her training and the storytelling force of her Southern upbringing.
Matthews’ writing holds public questions and private life in the same frame. Her songs address racial justice, LGBTQ dignity, faith, immigration, gender equity, gun violence, love, loss and the daily work of sustaining hope. The 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin marked a turning point in her songwriting, inspiring “Don’t Forget My Name” and deepening her commitment to music as witness, conversation and community.
Her latest album, *Reclamation*, is both a love letter to her roots and a declaration of space. It gathers the full range of her artistic identity as a Black woman, butch lesbian, preacher’s kid and proud Southerner, refusing to separate the personal from the political or the spiritual from the human. In 2026, Matthews’ resilient anthem “Sleeves Up” received Folk Alliance International’s Song of the Year award, affirming a songwriter who can tell difficult truths, hold complexity and still leave room for hope.