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Crys Matthews photo by Emily April Allen

Crys Matthews photo by Bob Howard

Crys Matthews photo by Bob Howard

Crys Matthews photo by Bob Howard

Crys Matthews photo by Bob Howard

Crys Matthews photo by Bob Howard

10/02/2023

Changemaker, Crys Matthews Brings New hope-Fueled by Compassionate Dissent / Sisters Folk Festival 2023

By BOB HOWARD // Day 3 Highlight - Crys Matthews - Sisters Folk Festival 2023

Crys Matthews first appearance at the Sisters Folk Festival was greeted enthusiastically. Matthews is a social-justice songwriter, who believes her duty is to keep breathing hope and encouragement into the people who listen to my music.  She brought her message of compassion and hope to Sisters.  “I believe in hope,” she says. “Those four words are what has sustained me these past four years. Dr. King said, ‘hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that,’ and I believe that hope is what fuels a love powerful enough to do that.” 

Her latest work, the hope-fueled, love-filled social justice album Changemakers, was self-released on Mar 30, 2021. The record delves into heavy topics such as immigration, the opioid crisis, Black Lives Matter, gun safety. But, it’s also about hope. “Changemakers” received the song of the year honors at the 2022 International Folk Music Awards.

Previously Matthews was the 2017 NewSong Singer-Songwriter Competition Grand Prize winner. As part of her prize, she recorded the six-track album These Old Hands at Echo Mountain Recording Studios in Asheville, NC. It was produced by Gar Ragland of NewSong Recordings and released on Friday, October 11, 2019 in celebration of National Coming Out Day. 

Matthews has performed at the Sundance Film Festival, the Kerrville Folk Festival, and The Kennedy Center. In her TedTalk “Sing, Don’t Shout—An Alternative Approach,” Matthews shares, "When you are black, a woman, a lesbian, a preacher's kid, and in an interracial marriage in the south... difficult conversations abound!"

She shares what she's learned during her life as "the poster child for intersectionality," about being raised in a small town in southeastern North Carolina by an A.M.E. preacher, and how she witnessed the power of music from an early age.

Matthews hopes to take her place alongside some of her heroes in the world of social-justice music like Sweet Honey in the Rock and Holly Near. Of Matthews, ASCAP VP & Creative Director Eric Philbrook says, “By wrapping honest emotions around her socially conscious messages and dynamically delivering them with a warm heart and a strong voice, she lifts our spirits just when we need it most in these troubled times."

"Safe" performed LIVE at Sisters Folk Festival 2023

Changemakers - Crys Matthews (ft. Heather May) performed at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York for the Spirit of the Suffragettes concert series on July 30th, 2019. 

TEDx Talk: Sing, don't shout — an alternative approach | Crys Matthews | TEDxHerndon - 2017

"Changemakers" recorded at NERFA 2019 in Stamford Ct. "We are more than keyboard warriors"

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