Matt Abell and Pearls Before Swine

Feed your inner swine with the deliciously down-home debut by Pearls Before Swine. The band fuses old-time Appalachian music with rockabilly and jazz to create what has been called "the new hillbilly avant-garde." (Musichead, September 2009)

"Like vinegar from a fine old wine. A gem in the rough, a pearl before swine. A little bit dirty, a little refined." Their lyrics sum up the folkabilly philosophy: play hard, play well, and don’t take yourself too seriously. Led by songwriter Matt Abell, Pearls Before Swine is the toe-tappiest, hap-happiest hillbilly band you never heard of.

Inspired by Jim Croce, Abell has been writing story-songs for fifteen years and counting. From the commonplace to the absurd, Matt always finds something to laugh at. There’s “Beg You Back,” about how men behave when women aren’t around to mother them; “Whole Lotta Woman,” about Elvis’ amazing appetite; and “The Runaround,” about an unfortunate accident involving Mexican food, a toilet, and a telephone. Besides the outrageous originals, Pearls Before Swine has earned a reputation for their twisted covers of 70’s and 80’s classics, like Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” and the Styx opus “Mr. Roboto.”

Band members include percussionist and producer Skip Detrick, who plays an odd assortment of found-objects, including scissors, clothespins, broken glass, and 180-grit sandpaper; award-winning jazz pianist Jesse Green; Rick Chamberlain, trombonist with the New York City ballet orchestra; violinist Tim Carbone, of the band Railroad Earth; and many other talented musicians from the greater metropolitan area of New York and Pennsylvania.