Musician with local ties to perform at fair

chris deback
cdeback@thefayettecountyunion.com

When Matthew Kane (Smith) takes the stage at the Fayette County Fair, it will be a sort of family reunion for the country singer.

Kane has been performing on stage since the age of 5 when he was a part of his parents, Charlie and Gwen Smith’s band The Amarrilla Band. His father was a bass player for Waylon Jennings. Kane was raised on Jennings along with other artists such as Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and ZZ Top.

“I was kind of born into it. I knew when I got older, about the time I was 21, that that is what I was supposed to be doing,” the musician said. 

Part of his mother’s family lives in the Clermont area, including his grandfather Jim Gunderson, but most of them have never heard Matthew perform before.

“I am looking at it more like a giant family reunion,” Kane explained. “They have seen me when I was a little kid, but this will be the first time for a lot of them to see me perform.” 

Despite ties to northeast Iowa, Kane was born in Cedar Rapids and spent his childhood in Roanoke and Martinsville, Va. He moved back to Cedar Rapids in 1995 and is now the chief executive officer of InTheMusic Productions. He is the lead singer and bass player for his band GREENBRIER. The band was named after Kane’s 1963 Chevy Corvair van.

The country rocker will open for Eric Paslay and Confederate Railroad on Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Fair. He has previously opened for other national acts including Keith Anderson, Charlie Daniels Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sugar Land, Exile and Lonestar. 

“I try to play stuff that everybody can relate to,” the songwriter said. “The music that I write is happy. My goal is to have people leave the show happy and they don’t know why.  Every night that I play, I usually have somebody come up to me and tell me, ‘I don’t like country music, but I like what you do.’ That is when you know you have accomplished what you are shooting for.”