Sarah Zimmermann and Justin Davis make up Striking Matches: the Nashville duo who are strongly armed with just two roaring guitars and two powerful voices. Musically they occupy the sweet spot at the intersection of country, rock and blues, where all of the elements blend to form an authentically raw and rootsy sound that has a timeless and international appeal.
The pair formed while studying at university in Nashville despite coming from Atlanta and Philadelphia. Zimmermann grew up as a highly talented musician, mastering the guitar, clarinet and violin before she’d even hit her teens, while Davis has been playing guitar from an early age. After being paired up for a class project at random, the two saw potential in each other’s raw talent and began writing music together.
Zimmermann and Davis shot to fame in 2012 through the US musical drama series Nashville, where the country-star characters covered nine of their songs across the first four seasons, including ‘When The Right One Comes Along’, ‘Hanging On A Lie’ and ‘The Rubble’.
They released their debut album Nothing But The Silence in 2015, which features the former two tracks. It topped the UK iTunes Country Chart and has been hit over one million streams worldwide. They followed this up two EPs, Shameless (2017) and Retrograde (2018), with the latter taking on a more heavy blues rock feel with a hint of funk that sees them widening their already eclectic sound. Their second full-length release is due later this year, much to fans’ delight.
The pair have performed countless UK shows, including extensive tours and sets at C2C: Country To Country and Black Deer festivals. Entertainment Focus placed them in their top three performances of Black Deer this year, highlighting the intensity of their live shows. They have also toured with the likes of Train, Ashley Monroe and Keith Urban.
Striking Matches are winning over UK audiences with every performance. Not only superbly talented songwriters and players, their voices fuse together to create lush harmonies and together they deliver a show not to be forgotten.
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Website – strikingmatches.com
Facebook – /strikingmatches
Twitter – @STRIKINGMATCHES