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Crys Matthews, a bright star of the new generation of social justice music-makers, will appear at the Old Sloop Presents performing arts series Friday, February 6. Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe member Thea Hopkins will open the show.
Hailed as “the next Woody Guthrie,” Nashville resident Crys Matthews is a powerful lyricist whose songs of compassionate dissent reflect her lived experience as what she lightheartedly calls “the poster child for intersectionality,” Justin Hiltner of Bluegrass Situation called Matthews’s gift “a reminder of what beauty can occur when we bridge those divides.” 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. 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.”
Performing songwriter Thea Hopkins calls her music “Red Roots Americana”. She has been described as a “standout writer” by the Washington Post. The New York Stage and Film Fund selected Hopkins as a 2025 and 2024, “Indigenous Voices of The Northeast” artist resident in support of her play, “An American Ghost Dance”. October 2024 saw Thea at WOMEX Manchester (UK), as a Western Arts Alliance US artist delegate. In Spring 2024, she was selected to attend the First Nations gathering and the ISPA Congress in Perth, Australia as a Western Arts Alliance artist delegate.