Listen to a Matt Hillyer album, or catch one of his shows, and you’ll hear an artist in his element, pushing a lifetime of musical influences to the limit yet always sounding authentically like himself. “I’ve always tried to mix up styles that I love,” says Hillyer, the veteran singer-songwriter whose latest record, Bright Skyline, showcases a range fine-tuned over three decades playing Texas dance halls and listening rooms.
The eleven tracks on Bright Skyline, released June 21st via State Fair Records, are Hillyer in his wheelhouse — a journey from his rockabilly roots through the vibes he takes from western swing, outlaw country, and traditional honky-tonk country. In Hillyer’s words, the record is the natural successor to his 2021 solo project, Glorieta.
Like on Glorieta, Hillyer teamed up with producer John Pedigo, who has also produced works for the Old 97s and Vandoliers, to dial in Bright Skyline. “John and I hit a pretty good stride on the last record, so we didn’t want to take too much time before we got back in and started work on the next one,” Hillyer says. Bright Skyline was recorded in Hillyer’s hometown of Dallas, Texas and features noted pedal steel player Lloyd Maines, along with Willie Nelson bassist Kevin Smith. Other musicians include James Driscoll on bass, Arjuna Contreras on drums, and Heather Stalling on fiddle.
If Hillyer’s voice sounds familiar, it should. For 23 years, he fronted legendary honky-tonk band Eleven Hundred Springs, touring the world and releasing more than a dozen albums before the band ended in 2021. But, Hillyer’s career predates Eleven Hundred Springs. He honed his chops in the rockabilly outfit Lone Star Trio, and even a rock band, Strap, hitting the stages of Dallas’ venerable Deep Ellum neighborhood throughout the ’90s. In 2014 he released his solo debut album If These Old Bones Could Talk. Eleven Hundred Springs may have set the standard for swingin’ Texas country outfits, but Hillyer always had more to offer — which Bright Skyline highlights time and again.
“When I was writing songs for Eleven Hundred Springs, typically, I was trying to write an Eleven Hundred Springs record,” Hillyer says. “That’s one thing that’s cool about my solo records — I can open myself up to stuff that wouldn’t work on an Eleven Hundred Springs record.”
The album’s lead track, “What Are You Doing Now?” is a cowrite with Max Stalling. The two put their minds together to put a modern twist on the classic country notion of giving love one more shot. “I dig the way it came out,” Hillyer says. “Max kind of had the idea for it, and I felt like I had to pat myself on the back when it was done, because, you know, I contributed! That was a really solid co-write! Just me and my pal sat down and made up a song. I’m pretty proud of that one.”
Another of the album’s co-writes is “Did She Ever Want To Live Like This”, co-written by Mando Saenz while Hillyer was in Nashville for AmericanaFest. Hillyer says “I’ve known Mando for a long time. We’ve been good friends, but also I’m a big fan of his writing. Sitting down to cowrite with him was the realization of something I’d wanted to do for a long time.”
As a songwriter, Hillyer has a knack for telling stories. In “Moving Away,” he took inspiration from some long-time neighbors who he says were plenty nice but who routinely made the folks in nearby houses wish they’d pack up and find a new place.
“We kept crossing our fingers that someday, they might move out,” he says. “Finally, one day, I was talking to one of the younger guys who lived there, and he said, ‘Well I guess you heard, we’re moving!’ And of course I was like, ‘Oh no! That’s too bad! Stay in touch!’ And then I went inside, and I wrote that song about all the stuff we had seen them do.”
While “Moving Away” is lighthearted, the album’s title track “Bright Skyline” shows a deeper, more thoughtful side of Hillyer. The song came to him during his daily drives taking his daughter to school. Hillyer explains “Every day we passed people whose home was the streets of Downtown Dallas. So many people drive right past them, never giving them a second thought while I couldn’t stop thinking about them, about how these street were their reality and knowing that they didn’t have a place to drive home to like I do.” Hillyer hopes the song, and its forthcoming video, sparks a beneficial conversation about people without housing.
Hillyer also takes listeners all the way back to his musical origins in rockabilly on the track “If I Didn’t Have You.” The song’s swampy percussion and guitar provide the backdrop to a stunning range of lead vocals from Hillyer, imploring another with “There ain’t nothing I’d wanna do if I didn’t have you.”
“The whole rockabilly genre is just a huge cornerstone of my musical journey in life,” Hillyer says. “That kind of music is what brought me to the dance in the first place, and I can sometimes forget that. Sometimes I need to sit down and go, ‘Hey. Let’s get back into our wheelhouse. Something snappy, something traditional, something honky-tonk.’ If I write a good one, it just feels right.”
“With Bright Skyline I want to tour as much as possible. I want to keep myself open to all the different genres that I can actually do, just to keep myself on my toes, and be able to do any and all of it for any of my shows. That’s what I want to do.”