Matt Stell at The Bluestone Opening Artists: Chris Bandi and Ray Fulcher Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 day of show “I just try to be as real as possible,” says “Prayed for You” hit maker Matt Stell. “Just trying to tell some kind of truth is the hallmark of what I do.” Coming from a true singer-songwriter like Stell, that’s not really an Earth-shattering statement. What makes it interesting, though, is the wealth of experience he has to pull from. A renaissance man in modern country, Stell is both an artist and an athlete, a soulful Southern vocalist and a worldly wayfarer. He’s a deep-thinking academic and a live-for-the-moment dreamer. And he’s a writer whose passion for the page is only equaled by his addiction to the stage. A life of twists and turns has led Stell to follow more than a few callings – and he’s done so with excellence each time. But with his Everywhere But On EP, the tangled paths of his background converge at a new destination. A native of Center Ridge, Arkansas, and a 6’7” former collegiate basketball standout, Stell finds himself on the cusp of stardom in 2019. His powerfully romantic single “Prayed for You” has racked up more than 45 million digital streams and is now spinning on country radio, while the music video has been viewed more than 4 million times. The Nashville recording project he’s been working toward for years is out, and he’s made his Grand Ole Opry debut. But if he’s honest, he was starting to think this would never happen. After teaching himself to play guitar and sing in college – moonlighting at local venues under a fake name after basketball practice – Stell finished up grad school and began writing with Red Dirt stars like Casey Donahew, who he met on the regional tour circuit. Tapping a diverse love of artists whose songs read like stories – Randy Travis, Bonnie Raitt and the Drive-By Truckers, to name a few – Stell’s own words began making waves, with songs like “Whiskey Baby” and “Small Town Love” hitting Number One on the Texas Radio chart for Donahew, and raucous live shows pulling him to Nashville in 2014.