Joined by co-writers Ash Bowers and Allison Veltz-Cruz
By Preshias Harris
It was a lot of “firsts” when Nashville’s music industry came out to celebrate on 19 November. It was the Number One party for “Prayed For You,” recorded by Matt Stell who wrote the song with Ash Bowers and Allison Veltz-Cruz.
It was Matt Stell’s first No. 1 as an artist. And it was the first No. 1 as songwriters for Stell, Bowers and Velts-Cruz. Additionally, the song was recognized as the only artist debut single to top the Country Airplay chart in 2019. “Prayed For You” has been certified Gold (and will receive a Platinum certification) with more than 125 million streams.
(On behalf of Kyser Musical Products, I presented Stell with an ASCAP-branded Keyser Capo, awarded to an ASCAP writer on the occasion of writing his or her first No. 1.)
From medical career to music
During the media meeting before the Award presentation, I reminded Matt that he seemed to be set for a medical career until he met up with Ash Bowers. I asked him what it was about that meeting that changed his career course.
“I had been on this medical mission trip to Haiti and had worked alongside doctors and was pretty floored by that. I had been in Nashville for a few years at that point,” Matt recalled. “I came to town to sign a [song] publishing deal to write songs and make little weird records of my own. That was the path I saw. And I got here and I didn’t have the opportunities I was after present themselves. After that trip, I kinda thought to myself, if wasn’t doing music, if I wasn’t going to pursue that as a passion, what could I be passionate about? Working alongside those physicians, I could be passionate about that. So I applied to a pre-medical program at Harvard’s Extension School. I had the opportunity to go up to the Northeast and get all the things done so that I could apply to Med school proper.
“It was about six or eight weeks before I was headed up there. I was packing my bags, doing remedial math, trying to remember how to add,” Matt said with a laugh. “And that’s when I met Ash Bowers through another writer. Soon after that, he offered me the publishing deal that I wanted, that was one that any new writer in town would have killed to have that opportunity. I knew what I wanted to do; I knew what my passion was. And I knew that as great as that other path would be, it was still kind of a Plan B to me, and now I had Plan A.”
First co-write together
Ash Bowers revealed that “Prayed For You” was the first time that he, Matt and Allison had ever written together, although he’d seen Allison perform at a writers’ night at Nashville’s Bluebird Café. “She came in [to the writing session] and she was running a little bit behind,” recalled Ash. “But she said, ‘I’ve got an idea.’ And typically, that’s ‘Hey don’t kill me, I’ll be there in a minute.’ I thought to myself, ‘well, I hope she’s got an idea.’ And, man, did she! She came in with an incredible title and a hook.”
Allison picked up the story about the inspiration for the song and the morning they got together to write. “I just had this idea kind of fall on me,” she said. “I was brand new to faith and to praying in 2016. So I started journaling about what I wanted in October 2016.”
On May 1, 2017, she was baptized and on May 5 she met the man who would become her husband. May 11 would be their first date together. Allison came into the writing session that same morning, having looked back through her journals. “I thought about the man that I knew I was going on a date with that night and I was like, ‘You’re the guy I prayed for. I can see it,’” said Allison. “It hit me and fell on me in such a real way, going in to this was the perfect room for me to bring this waterfall of an idea that came from such a real place. And there are no better ‘construction workers’ to help me make sense of that moment than Ash and Matt.”
‘Everywhere But On’ Tour
Matt Stell is currently wrapping up a tour as an opening act on Chris Young’s Raised on Country World Tour. In January 2020, he will be back on the road with his Everywhere But On Tour, his first headlining set of shows, with Chris Bandi and Ray Fulcher as supporting acts. Matt talked about preparing for this new phase of his career.
“One good learning tool is this Chris Young and Eli Young Band tour, to see how the pros do it,” said Matt. “People that I’ve looked up to. You watch what people do that are successful at what they do. I try to figure out all I can to make a show like they make a show. Also, Jimmie Allen is incredible at that so it’s nice having him as a resource, either to reach out to or get to play shows with. I’m getting to sound like a broken record, but everything is really coming up roses for me right now, so it’s hard not to talk in glowing terms.”
“That’s Me right there!”
Matt recalled being in Las Vegas this summer and hearing “Prayed For You” when he got in an Uber car at the airport. “I just looked at the driver and said, ‘Ma’am, that’s me right there!’ And she gave me a ‘No it’s not’ look. I said, ‘No, it is!’ I just had to tell somebody. So we had a nice little chat in the Uber. Kathleen, I think was her name. So Kathleen, I hope you’re having a great day in Vegas, in line at the airport!”
“Prayed For You” is the first single from Matt’s debut seven-song EP, Everywhere But On, that includes a collaboration with Jimmie Allen. See Matt’s website https://www.mattstell.com/ for tour updates and follow him on Facebook.
Preshias Harris is a music journalist and music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com