Matt Waters is a singer-songwriter from New York City. His songs range from character studies of the contemporary American to intimate explorations of love. A writer of fiction, he attempts to meld the musical and literary realms through detailed lyricism. He has been particularly inspired by the likes of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Billy Corgan, Mike Scott, Isaac Brock, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur, Elliott Smith, Patti Smith, Nicole Atkins, Damien Rice and Bruce Springsteen. As a guitar player he’s influenced by the progressions of John Lennon and George Harrison. The lyrics to his song Aurora were published in the March 2017 issue of American Songwriter Magazine. An essay about being a performance artist called A Moment of Honesty was published in Guernica in May 2016.
Second-Hand Dream
Bills are paid
The lady stayed
For at least another week
A part-time French maid
Leaves cognac on her father’s grave
Loves when the radio plays, “Don’t Speak”
Our modest abode
A working Nintendo and rotatory phone
A rented American dream
I’m a pugilist and bartender
My brother’s an English teacher with tenure
My father’s in prison for a punch that ruptured some drunk’s spleen
I took a second-hand dream
And gave myself a life
It comforted like a harlot
Before it slashed me like a knife
She took a second-hand dream
And gave herself a life
Thought she’d be a starlet
Then she was my wife
She got a gig
Playing the wife of a whig
In a burlesque about Andrew Jackson
Thought she hit it big
Then snapped like a twig
When it didn’t provide much traction
And me at the undercard at Gleason’s
Fighting rabid pups for one good reason
My father thought I was good at it
She became withdrawn in a low season
Her once holy vision tantamount to treason
Often sighs melodic, “hope is just another habit.”
Chorus
Never came to nothing like an ultimatum
I expressed doubts repeated verbatim
She seemed to desire a world beyond
My brother wanted to fight and mom forbade him
But some men need gloves to attract a fair maiden
She was being hassled beneath the blue neon
These days the city streets seem to shine silver
You can push penny stocks and still claim a sliver
I couldn’t blame her for considering other possibilities
I could have gone Union, a carpenter or builder
She could fly away whenever the wind may will her
Yet here on the sidewalk she still stands by me
28 Aug 2026
No Oliver Stone (Demo)
Well, we’ve blurred the distinction
Between happiness and numbness
Entertained to death
How did I become this?
And I buy the ticket
For the billionaire’s team
He secured with my loyalty
And an annuity scheme
Harmless pleasures
To get us through the daze
In case of an insight
Forgone in glory’s blaze
And I have my principles
A routine of discipline
Maybe I never got far enough out
Of all these hours within
I’m no Oliver Stone
With a rabbit in my hat
Take the camera in the chopper
That’s the end of that
I’m no Oliver Stone
Putting the project over tact
Berating some dreamboat
That he can’t actually act
No Oliver Stone
Another high-noon
On the frontier in my skull
Where polarities die in gunfights
Over their total loss of control
A life less dramatic
In the jackpot of responsibility
So distant from my idealism
As to wonder what it ever meant to me
Suspicious of a stranger
Occupying a narrative
Sullenly accepting atrocities
Their god would never forgive
I know I still feel
With whatever soul I hold onto
But I’m just a painted figment
In the distance on an unknown avenue
9 Jul 2026
Letter to my Double: A Yankees Season on the Brink
Discussing the floundering yet still highly relevant Yankees on July 9th, 2026. Can they turn it around? Why do people tell lies about Brian Cashman? Who should the Yankees target at the trading deadline?
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1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 25 / 100
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Contact Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review
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