Matt Woods | Iowa Blues Guitarist & American Roots Veteran
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Iowa blues guitarist, songwriter, and roots-music veteran Matt Woods performs at Live From the Gilded Palace on Tuesday, September 29, 2026.
A native of Iowa and a longtime force in its music scene, Woods has spent more than two decades developing a distinct style grounded in traditional American music. His work reaches across Delta blues, hill country blues, urban electric blues, gospel, country, and folk, carried by commanding vocals, deft songwriting, and the slashing slide guitar that has become central to his sound.
Woods has performed regularly since 2002, averaging more than 100 shows a year as a solo artist while also playing with roots-oriented bands, backing some of the Midwest’s finest songwriters, and contributing guitar to a wide range of studio recordings.
He has won the Iowa Blues Challenge and represented the state at the International Blues Challenge an unprecedented three times. His 2006 solo debut, If I Was a Fish, finished in the top five of The Blues Foundation’s Best Self-Produced CD competition. His first all-original solo album, Sawdust and Gasoline, earned extensive airplay in the United States and Europe, reached the competition’s top five again in 2015, and received a Blues Blast Magazine nomination for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year.
Woods has also released two albums with his band, The Thunderbolts. Dirty Linen described Be My Friend as “blistering,” while Living Blues called Matt Woods and The Thunderbolts “a smoking amalgam of Hound Dog Taylor and Freddy King.” Blues Revue praised the album as “raw, hypnotic and very appealing.” His fifth studio album, Tired and Dirty, continued that tradition with entirely original songs, powerful vocals, and cutting slide guitar.
Across his career, Woods has shared stages with Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins, Louisiana Red, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, John Primer, Delbert McClinton, Dr. John, Joe Price, and many others. In 2010, Matt Woods and The Thunderbolts opened for Pat Benetar and REO Speedwagon at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand before more than 10,000 people—the only local band, before or since, to perform on that stage.