----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AMERICANA UK REVIEW: Ol’ Yeller “Good Luck” (SMA 2006) Rootsy American rock and roll. Do you like your rock a little rootsy? A little loud, plenty of guitars, but keeping the melodies and still being able to hear the vocals? Are Stewboss ok, but really you yearn for something with a bit
more guts? The come down to the dog pound, because Ol’ Yeller is just the thing for you.
Actually named after the main man Rich Mattson (an old guy who yells) Ol’ Yeller are the bastard sons of the Long Ryders and Creedence Clearwater Revival and their songs are short (12 in 37 minutes), sharp and to the point. Right on that point are tracks like “Diapers” (way better
than it’s title), a lament for lost innocence and potential, presented as a brutal and raw singalong. Further back are the likes of “Country Hilt”, and way, way back you’ll find “Be A New Man”, wherein Mattson chronicles, a la Randy Newman, his intent to start over (tomorrow). Mattson and
co harmonise beautifully throughout, the guitar solos are crisp and never outstay their welcome.
What’s not to like?
Date review added:   Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Reviewer:  Jeremy Searle

RIFT Magazine Issue #16
Ol' Yeller - Good Luck
by Nick Leet
Rich, Rich, Rich, where do you get all those wonderful songs?
Rich Mattson has been pumping out quality songs for longer than anyone can remember and Ol' Yeller's new album "Good Luck" is no exception. The album kicks off with the catchy "Jean Jacket Weather." If you haven't heard this track yet, you don't have to worry, because I'm sure
The Current will get you caught up in it as soon as possible. "You Can Laugh" follows and it's more of the meat and potatoes rock and roll this band is so good at delivering. On "Country Hilt,"Mattson talks about all the things he doesn't need weighing him down, like plasma TVs and SUVs.
Sounds like the time Rich has experienced since going up north hasn't hampered his songwriting, but, in fact, inspired him. The secret weapon for Ol' Yeller is the great guitar work of Andy Schultz.
Twin Cities bands should take note, because this is how rock and roll should be done. There really isn't a bad track on this record and the way Mattson writes 'em, the next record will rock just as much.

In the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE from 6/24/05: Ol' Yeller "Nuzzle" was listed as one of the top 10 local cd's of the decade (so far)

City Pages' A LIST props for SMA Records showcase:

Since releasing the first Glenrustles album in 1999 [1995 actually], SMA has been not-so-quietly releasing some of the finest roots-smoked rock and roll this side of New West Records or Yep Rock. This afternoon/evening amidst the hallowed Know Name stacks, the SMA stable trots out all its thouroughbreds--including big dogs Ol' Yeller, as wel as Kingdom of Ghosts, Blame and the Gleam, whose the Chisago County EP is, along with The Current, SMA, Melodious Owl, and quite a few others, proof positive that there is something very special a-crackling at the moment in this magical little arts-and-music prairie burg we call Oz.

--Jim Walsh

Fufkin.com “Best of 2004”

OL' YELLER - Sounder (SMA Records) This alt-country/roots-rock band has been quietly releasing some very fine records that should appeal to Neil Young and Crazy Horse fans … along with Blue Mountain loyalists.

-Eric Sorenson

City Pages (Minneapolis) CD REVIEW:

Ol' Yeller
Sounder
SMA Records
Understanding Minnesota rock 'n' roll means wrapping your brain around the possibility that our finest singer could be found, on a Fourth of July weekend, in an Iron Range bar one block from the largest hockey stick in the world, covering Modern English's "I Melt with You." Rich Mattson isn't modern or English enough to deny a plastered mob its nostalgia. Nostalgia is one of his great subjects, after all, along with dreams of returning northward for good, chasing fireflies and raising chickens far from the reach of corporate capitalism. He's so unpretentious that when his great band the Glenrustles broke up, he lifted a new name out of a goofball pun on classic canine lit (Ol' Yeller as in "old guy who yells") and now does the same with the group's fourth album, Sounder (as in "emitter of sounds"). The guy's allegiance to the rural and the working class is so natural, he makes Fogerty look like a poseur.
But Mattson's gentle voice isn't easy to write for, and he knows it. With more character than Stipe, less texture than Westerberg, his singing is transcendent among harmonies, as on the lush jangle of "Nightstand," an ode to believing in bands. The song sounds like Wilco's best Woody Guthrie rewrite, in part because Mattson has a new bassist, Greg McAloon, and guitarist, Andy Schultz--and Schultz can really sing. "I don't understand what you're talking about/But I know that the feeling is right," Mattson croons, and you realize he's reading your mind.
Elsewhere, the craftsman in him avoids sacrificing the merely likable to worry about astonishing anyone. When his voice hits that perfect Blue Öyster Cult register, below which guitar lines can safely churn, it's a pleasant place to visit. He's rocking harder now, with a couple of cuts slipping in under the two-and-a-half-minute mark (the punky "13th Grade" and "Reward"--bonus nostalgia and anti-capitalism, respectively). Drummer Keely Lane, always the Big Ben of thwack , comes to the fore of Mattson's production this time. But the highlights are quiet departures, like the strummy country of "Drawing Blanks," a blues for the inarticulate, which sounds like Valet's take on the Auteurs. More modern, more English, in other words: Can synthesizers be far behind?

Peter S. Scholtes VOL 25 #1239 . PUBLISHED 9/1/04

Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN:

KILLER YELLER
Ol' Yeller 's Rich Mattson is one of my favorite singer-songwriters in town, but trying to get him to explain his songs is never easy. Thank goodness he has new OY bassist Greg McAloon (who actually played in an early version of the Yeller gang) to sum up the band's latest CD, "Sounder," which it's promoting with a release party tonight at the Turf Club.
"Greg said, 'It's sort of a concept album about rock 'n' roll and all that goes with playing in a band,' and I guess I buy that," Mattson said.
Coming just a year after the band's great "Penance" album (oh, the joy of owning your own studio), "Sounder" starts with a road song, "Driving Around in Circles," and includes other gems such as the songwriter's tale "Ignoring the Muse." Best of all, "Bait and Switch" alternates between slow verses on a band struggling to make it and more up-tempo verses where things go better.
With McAloon and newly added second guitarist Andy Schultz , the new Ol' Yeller sounds fuller and a tad grittier. Comparisons to Son Volt are more apt than ever now with the two-guitar attack and Mattson's gravelly, warm voice.
Said Mattson, "We're having a lot of fun. And having Andy on guitar takes some pressure off me."
When he's not recording his band, Mattson has been playing host to the likes of Anchorhead and Lifestyle of Wigs at his studio. Look for albums by them soon.

Chris Riemenschneider, September 3, 2004

New Ol' Yeller

Rich Mattson did a couple spread-eagle guitar jumps at the Turf Club last Friday, which should tell you a little something about Ol' Yeller's new four-piece lineup compares to the beloved trio of old. The band now features a second guitarist, Andy Schultz (of Betty Drake) and a new bassist in Mattson's old Glenrustles mate Greg McAloon. It's a heavier, rowdier Yeller, but the songs still run the show.

--Chris Riemenschneider, April 16 2004

Thursday, May 29, at Replay Lounge.
BY JOHN KREICBERGS
feedback@pitch.com
Details: With Grand Champeen
From the Week of Thursday, May 29, 2003
Call it a quest, but songwriter Rich Mattson would likely shrug and just call it a career. After moving from his modest northern Minnesota hometown to the relatively brighter lights of the Twin Cities, Mattson has spent the past fifteen years making music. His latest creation, Ol' Yeller -- a stripped-down trio consisting of Mattson, bassist Dale Kallman and drummer Keely Lane -- might just be the ticket he's been looking for. If it needs a label, call it alt-country, but Mattson's songwriting can stand on its own two feet without such crutches. pitch.com | originally published: May 29, 2003

www.kscu.org/Reviews/ReviewsJul7.html
OL' YELLER - PENANCE (SMA)
Good ol' fashioned alternative folk rock has arrived in the form of Ol' Yeller. Minnesota's Rich Mattson, Keely Lane, and Dale Kallman have been playing together since high school and had jumped around bands until they rejoined and formed Ol' Yeller. Mattson (vocals and guitars) combines simplistic lyrics, "head bobbingly good" vocals, and fun little guitar riffs. Lane (percussion) backs up the tunes and brings more color into the already colorful spectrum of guitar and bass. Kallman (bass) plays mainly backup bass lines and does not dominate over the guitar. This is good driving music, if you plan to be in Utah for a while. Similar bands include: Neil Young, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
-Boris Fedorov

Ripsaw News, Duluth MN

Music Reviews

Ol' Yeller-Nuzzle

Iron Range native Rich Mattson has really made a name for himself as one of today's most promising songwriters. Rich is a hardworking creative prodigy who somehow manages to avoid the spotlight. Despite numerous attempts to catch the attention of major labels; after 12 years and four critically-acclaimed albums with his first group, Minneapolis' beloved mainstay the Glenrustles, he decided to focus his efforts on a new project with some new collaborators. Enter Ol' Yeller.

Nuzzle is Ol' Yeller's sophomore set, and nothing in the years of rejections has changed Mattson's determination of winning over legions of fans with his honest lyrics and a trademark sound that generally is mistaken as "alt country." Ol' Yeller is nowhere near that genre, but its sound borders on it much as the Byrds did with their jangly guitar sound.

Nuzzle is a testament to the DIY aesthetic of surviving as musicians tour to the tune of little fans and less money. The opening track, "Out There," is a tribute to choochtown proprietor Ed Hamell, whose steadfast life on the road as Hamell On Trial has made him a modern-day pioneer. The majority of the other songs depict scenes from Ol' Yeller's touring hardships and livin'-in-a-tour-van blues.

"Burn" is a terrific testament about cheating that recalls Damn the Torpedoes-era Petty with pure rootsy-Americana rock. "Sulpher" tells an interesting tale about a Louisiana waitress with a black eye. This is true Americana beauty set at a Waffle House. "Expecting To Die" is an irresistable gem with enough lyrical hooks to ensure radio-friendly status. The lyrical content is traditional break-up musings ("It's a heartache/It's a waste of time/Payin' so much to go nowhere"), but this song has definite potential for the mass exposure Rich Mattson has been searching for ever since he was turned on to the sounds of his heroes, the Replacements.

If you yearn for the days when Paul Westerberg ruled the Minneapolis scene, or just need some classic rock 'n' roll to provide the soundtrack to all tomorrow's cross-country treks, Nuzzle is an ideal choice. Although we've come to expect a lot from Rich Mattson throughout the years, he is not one to let down.

--Matthew R. Perrine
March 20, 2002

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Ol Yeller are new dogs of the road

Ol' Yeller's second CD, "Nuzzle," is a great throwback to what it used to be like playing in a rock band. And that's not just because the music recalls many classic, chord-driven groups, from the Byrds to Green on Red to Camper Van Beethoven (thanks to frontman Rich Mattson's throaty, David Lowery-like voice).

Ol' Yeller is one local band that's putting its faith in the music, and it shows. Mattson, drummer Keely Lane, and bassist Dale Kallman dont have day jobs. Two of them live together, in a northeast Minneapolis house where the garage serves as a studio. Mattson makes some money producing other bands there. Otherwise, he and the group rely on gigs, many of which are on the road.

"I'm not going to lie and say we're living the high life," said Mattson, 34, an Iron Range native. "We sleep on a lot of people's floors and spend a lot of time just getting by. But I dont think I'd want it any other way, at least while I'm still young."

Besides demonstrating how tight such a lifestyle can make a band, "Nuzzle" is full of the kind of free-spirited, motion-filled songwriting that comes from the road, including the Waffle House-baked "Sulpher" and the warm lament "Summer of Madness." The disc opener, "Out There," is a tribute to one of the hardest-touring musicians ever, upstate New York's Ed Hamell (Hamell On Trial), whose career was derailed in a recent car accident. "Don't you ever think he wonders, 'What am I doing here?'" Mattson muses in it.

Ol' Yeller seems to know exactly what they're doing out there: After tonight's release party at the Turf Club with Terry Eason and Duluth's Giljunko, the band kicks off a Midwest tour that ends at Austin's South By Southwest Conference in mid-March.

-Chris Riemenschneider
Friday, February 15, 2002

St. Paul Pioneer Press
Pop Music

Rich music like "Nuzzle" right under your nose

"Don't you know I'm just a poet, honey; I write songs and hang out with flunkies/There's too many dreams to remember; all of them [live in the burning embers]," sings Rich Mattson on Minneapolis roots-rockers Ol' Yeller's sophomore long-player. As that song ("Under the Tree") suggests, the trio (Mattson, drummer Keely Lane and bassist/keyboardist/background vocalist Dale Kallman) spent much of last year touring the country, playing shows to crowds of various sizes and varying enthusiasms, and writing songs about it.

Lucky for us that Ol' Yeller is doing it, for one, and that we're not; Paul Westerberg called such emotional tourism of starving artists "suicane gratification." Still, while that experience may have left Mattson high and dry in the straight-and-narrow world, it has also accounted for his richest and most varied batch of songs to date.

The record kicks off with the fully loaded rocker "Out There," a tribute to road warrior Ed Hamell (Hamell On Trial) and all lost touring souls, and closes with the powerful ballad "You Never Know," a kiss-off to a woman-gone-wrong. In between are 10 mini-anthems to turning points, crossroads and ditches.

"Burn" is about a barfly's wandering eye and cheatin' heart, "Expecting to Die" is a lilting breakup song, and "Passed Ambition" is a melancholy self-exam about the fruits and arrows of the artistic life. "I Can't Hang!" is the set's highlight, a raging Kinks-ish put-down of a self-centered date sung with an open-hearted Everyman yowl. That Everyman quality-so endearing in his songwriting-is inherent to Mattson's singing voice as well, sometimes to the point where it doesn't rise above the pack of less-talented songwriters traveling the alt-country back roads.

Still, when Mattson sings, "Leave it to travel to make you feel so small/Halfway 'cross the country it's the same damn strip mall/I see why you never leave the house/Everything you need's a click away on your mouse," he does so with the forlorn realization that he's part of a dying breed that knows things like the harmonica solo that follows-and bands like Ol' Yeller-can't be had in computers and convenience stores.

--Jim Walsh Friday, Feb. 15, 2002

CITY PAGES
Best of the Twin Cities

Best Songwriter-Rich Mattson

The late Glenrustles piled great line atop great line like coats on a bed at a party, but frontman Rich Mattson always seemed ready to flop down on them anyway. It wasn't that his songwriting lacked wit or passion, just that his spiritual weariness ran so deep that for 12 years he seemed perilously close to becoming a mellower, crustier Paul Westerberg-and we have plenty of those already. Perhaps what makes him a gentle rocker, though, also makes him a gifted talker. The self-titled debut of his new band Ol' Yeller (on SMA Records) hardly sounds resigned or pat: Mattson is writing his purest and prettiest pop yet, and the singer-guitarists "To Thine Own Self" feels like sunshine and a knock-knock joke before breakfast. "I once had a woman who'd never be my wife," he croons. "I couldn't live without her/But here I am alive." The sound is so open, simple, and rich, it recalls Tom Petty in his freefalling years. Just keep Jeff Lynne away from the premises.

May 2, 2001

The pop sensibility of guitar ace Randy Casey (who has since parted ways with the band) makes for a nice match with Mattson's piercing guitar and gravely growl. The band has a real knack for pretty harmonies ("Piece Of Work" and "To Thine Own Self"), country-soaked toe tappers ("The Denial Song") and solid, moving tunes ("Follow The Heart").

Recording at Mattson's Flowerpot studio, Ol' Yeller got a little help from pedal steel ace Eric Heywood and their solid rhythm section of Keely Lane (Trailer Trash) and Dale Kallman. Their self-titled debut is quality Americana for anyone who likes a glass of wine with their meat and potatoes.

--Amy Carlson

View the entire Glenrustles press kit on our old Glenrustles site

All copyrights belong to the respective publication from which the following excerpts are taken