From out of the blue, Matty T aims to keep Tahoe blues

Tahoe Onstage
Matty “T” Taynton, right, is the featured artists at the Buddy Emmer Blues Band’s show Tuesday at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

The next gunslinger to ride into Tahoe is Matty T, and he intends to paint the town in blues.

Matty “T” Taynton is the featured player at the Tuesday Winter Blues at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe’s Center Stage. The free, weekly show from 8 to 11:30 p.m. is hosted by the five-piece Buddy Emmer Blues Band.

Taynton is a veteran bluesman from Vacaville and the owner of Tweed Hut Music.

“I guess that’s what I am, a gunslinger with a six-string,” Taynton said. “I own my own music store and love guitar. I have three kids so I can’t devote myself to playing every weekend or every chance I get anymore, as much as I love it.”

Emmer remembered Taynton from a jam in Reno a couple of years ago. His invitation to play at Tahoe was the first time he spoke to Taynton since that jam.

“It came from out of the blue,” Taynton said.

Taynton discovered the blues when he was 10 years old. His friend Juan Alderete’s older brother had a Jimi Hendrix record collection, and both of the younger boys were inspired. Alderete became a rock star, playing bass with Racer X and the Mars Volta.

At the age of 14, Taynton began to play the guitar. He said he has an aggressive style and cited influences as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robin Trower, Buddy Buy and Freddie King.

“I am the dominate blues guy in the small market here,” he said.

He was nominated for Guitar Player of the Year by the Bay Area Blues Society and has played all of the festivals in the area. He has developed a following at Palms Playhouse in Winters, Calif., a mini-Fillmore auditorium frequented by Tommy Castro, Roy Rogers and Walter Trout, a pretty impressive trio of gunslingers.

The Harrah’s show has three sets, the first by the Buddy Emmer Band, and the second two with the featured artist and Emmer’s band, which includes vocalist Kim Emmer.

ABOUT Tim Parsons

Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.

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