American singer-songwriter born in Eugene, Oregon, on December 1, 1978), now based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mat Kearney (CARN-ee) is a singer/songwriter based out of Nashville, TN, originally from Eugene, Oregon. His music has an acoustic base fused with hip hop. He is signed to Aware/Columbia Records. In addition to singing, he also plays guitar, piano and harmonica. So far, he has a total of 4 top 20 hits on the Adult Top 40 Chart.
He has toured with John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, The Fray, Jason Mraz,Vedera Newsboys, MUTEMATH, Meiko, Cary Brothers, and Train; and headlined VH1's first ever "You Oughta Know Tour" in the spring of 2007.
Kearney's songs have appeared on the television series: Dirty Sexy Money, Kyle XY, The Unit, Without A Trace, Laguna Beach, The Hills, Bones, Jericho, Friday Night Lights, Wildfire, What About Brian, South Beach, 8th & Ocean, One Tree Hill, Scrubs, The Closer, NCIS, Life Unexpected and Grey's Anatomy.
He attended California State University, Chico in Chico, California where he majored in literature and played soccer until his junior year. It was also at this time when Mat picked up a guitar for the first time. Using a roommate's guitar, he tried covering other songs. Realizing he wasn't too good at it, he began writing his own.
Kearney has stated that his legal name is Mathew due to a nurses error on his birth certificate. He discovered the error while in the 8th grade when he noticed how his mom corrected the error with red ink, never legally correcting it. Since then, he embraced the one T in his legal name.
From Wikipedia:Mathew Kearney (born December 1, 1978) is an American musician born in Eugene, Oregon, now based in Nashville, Tennessee. Kearney has received critical acclaim and widespread recognition for his Columbia Records debut, Nothing Left to Lose. So far, he has a total of 4 top 20 hits on the Adult Top 40 Chart.
He has toured with the likes of Keane, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, MUTEMATH, Meiko, Cary Brothers, and Train; and headlined VH1's first ever "You Oughta Know Tour" in the spring of 2007.
Kearney's songs have appeared on the television series: 30 Rock, Dirty Sexy Money, Kyle XY, The Unit, Without A Trace, Laguna Beach, The Hills, Bones, Jericho, Friday Night Lights, Wildfire, What About Brian, South Beach, 8th & Ocean, One Tree Hill, Scrubs, The Closer, NCIS, Life Unexpected, Grey's Anatomy and The Vampire Diaries.
His most recent album, City of Black & White, was recorded in Nashville, TN at Blackbird Studios. The album's first single was "Closer to Love", released on March 10.
In May, Kearney toured with Keane and The Helio Sequence for several weeks to promote City of Black & White. It debuted on the Billboard 200 at #13.
Mat's guitars of choice are usually the Martin D-28 or the Gibson Hummingbird. Mat began to regularly use the Martin when he toured with Keane to promote City of Black & White. Once he began his headlining tour, he continued to use it. Most concerts before that, he is seen with his Gibson. The Martin was lost in the May 2010 Tennessee floods. Much of his other equipment was lost as well.