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'The Journeyman Harper' contains 17 solo harp tracks from Matt's Renaissance Faire repertoire. About a third of the pieces are Irish folk melodies evocative of a rich harp tradition. There are also a few Swedish traditional melodies, lively and haunting. Complimenting these are ancient-sounding medieval pieces and elegant Renaissance dances. Matt Schwarz has been playing music since 1990, trying his hand at guitar, piano, flute, and cello and ranging from classical to folk to heavy metal. He helped form the eclectic rock group Sleepy Hollow in 1999 and has been performing and recording music ever since. He'd been interested in the harp for years, inspired by a love for Irish traditional music, and finally acquired a 3-octave lap harp at the 2001 Celtic Classic in Bethlehem, PA. About a month after laying hands on it, Matt used it to record the medieval-inspired original composition InchBroken WingsInch for Sleepy Hollow's (otherwise hard-rocking) InchGoin' OverInch album. However, other musical commitments didn't allow him to delve much into harp-playing for a while, although he used it on the song InchLittle KatieInch for his 2003 solo acoustic-folk album InchThe Lost WayInch, around the same time lineup difficulties with Sleepy Hollow caused Matt to begin performing acoustic gigs - solo, with a stripped down Sleepy Hollow, and with the group Sacred Fool. Matt began working more with the harp at this time, as well as working in more of the traditional music he loved. This change in direction led Matt to renaissance faires, where he could play the kind of music he loved to a receptive audience. He began practicing the harp in earnest over the winter of '03-'04, working up a repertoire of traditional, renaissance, and medieval pieces on harp, as well as guitar and flute. Beginning with the 2004 NJ Renaissance Kingdom, Matt worked up a circuit of about a dozen festivals
