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If you were fortunate enough to catch Matt Andersen preview his new disc at Saint John's Blue Olive earlier this week, consider yourself lucky because he's not officially releasing his new disc until he gets back from a tour of England that will see him rocking out across the pond until sometime late in the month of June.

Perhaps one of New Brunswick more recognizable and more respected artists, Andersen has been putting a lot of effort into taking his musical journey to the next level by recording his new disc with a full band, but not just any band. Andersen travelled across the pond to England where he recorded with session men who played on some of the most influential rock albums of all-time.

Andersen spoke with [here] over a dodgy cell phone connection from Halifax as he was just finishing up rehearsals with his full band prepping for this week's Blue Olive shows and forthcoming CD release tour to be announced at a later date.

"Playing with those guys was amazing, it was really cool," he says. "They have a world of experience and it was a great opportunity to be able to play with them. What's really cool is that they've seen it all and there were no egos at all." Andersen says while the new album will contain new sounds because of being recorded with a full band, his songwriting style and trademark intensity haven't changed a bit. Known as an acoustic blues guitar player, Matt stretches his musical legs a bit this time around adding some electric tracks to the disc.

"I played mostly acoustic on this record but I did a bit of electric playing as well. The two are different beasts because the electric guitar has so much more sustain where I can hold notes longer so I change my style a bit. Mainly my focus is to try and mimic the stuff the guys did on the electric guitar with my acoustic guitar and that always brings out some neat results."

Matt Andersen's bread and butter has been his live acoustic solo shows and introducing a full band to fans used to seeing him as a solo act has been a learning experience Andersen.

"I've been doing more shows with the band and people are a little skeptical at fist, but they generally warm up to a bit faster than I had expected. I'm still most comfortable with my solo show but if people prefer the band show, we'll start doing more band shows."

While Andersen isn't officially releasing the new disc until June he's keeping busy by returning to England for a 10-date tour supporting octogenarian bluesman Honeyboy Edwards.

The tour was a direct result of a tour Andersen did last fall with fellow NBer Jessica Rhaye and Nova Scotia folkie Dave Gunning. Honeyboy Edwards is a true musical pioneer. One of the original delta bluesman, Honeyboy Edwards is one of the last surviving originators of the delta blues sound, a sound that has inspired legions of musicians, Matt Andersen included.

"This tour is going to be an amazing experience for me. When you think about it, he's one of the guys that started playing the licks I play today. I'm looking forward to hearing some heavy, raw and unfiltered blues from an originator. This is an opportunity to actually go to the well. He was with Robert Johnson the night we was poisoned by a jealous husband; you can't get any closer to the source than that!" Once Andersen returns from Jolly Olde England he tells [here] that he's expecting a busy summer with the new CD release and a full schedule of festival appearances across North America that will no doubt continue to see the talented Victoria County native grow his ever expanding fan base by winning over audiences on the strengths of his abilities as a songwriter and take-no-prisoners approach to live performance. If your N.B. based musical act or event would like to be featured in this column, please contact the columnist at oneyearofnbmusic@yahoo.ca.