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Matt Sweeney doesn\\u2019t want to dazzle you with rock guitar. That\\u2019s boring. That\\u2019s lazy. At least to him. He wants to mesmerize you.

\\u201cReally, that\\u2019s the point of music: to get people\\u2019s minds off of whatever and to hypnotize them a little bit,\\u201d Sweeney told PG in 2021. After beginning his Superwolves collaboration with Will Oldham, \\u201cthat\\u2019s when I thought, \\u2018Cool, I did the thing that I wanted to do. I can fingerpick now and I can play with a really great singer who is working in an idiom that I hadn\\u2019t worked in before.\\u2019

\\u201cI started playing with Will and that gave me the opportunity to keep developing the way that I was playing, because it went well with his singing. After a couple of years, that led to Will suggesting that we write songs together.\\u201d

The audible opiate that Sweeney provides has also cast his spell over the works of Rick Rubin, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Adele, Cat Power, Run the Jewels, Chavez, John Legend, Zwan (collaboration with Billy Corgan), Tinariwen, \\u201cCowboy\\u201d Jack Clement, Billy Gibbons, and Margo Price. And with every episode of hypnosis comes a trance-breaking snapback. Providing that rhythmic recoil is Sweeney\\u2019s current foil, Emmett Kelly. Both have worked with Oldham, but until now\\u2014in the current Superwolves line-up\\u2014never together.

Kelly steps into the fold with an indie and outsiders Rolodex filled with names like Ty Segall, Angel Olson, Azita, Cairo Gang, Mikal Cronin, The C.I.A., Earth Girl Helen Brown, Magic Trick, Doug Paisley, and Joan of Arc. Sweeney sums up their guitar-nership with his typical, sly-and-dry snark: \\u201cWhat\\u2019s important about the way me and Emmett play together is that we never talk about it [laughs]. It\\u2019s true! He\\u2019s like the best guitar player. He\\u2019s a master at making everything sound better. We\\u2019ve both worked together\\u2014but mostly separately\\u2014with our singer Will Oldham, and it was his suggestion that we should all go out together [without bass and drums] because it should be good. But really, we\\u2019ve never had to talk about it, and we just play. It\\u2019s been a lot of fun.\\u201d

So, when PG\\u2019s Chris Kies recently connected with Sweeney and Kelly, they were providing a guitar backdrop for a headlining set fronted by Bonnie \\u201cPrince\\u201d Billy Oldham at Nashville\\u2019s Mercy Lounge, supporting Sweeney and Billy\\u2019s 2021 release, Superwolves. While the conversation with both does cover their spartan setups, the meat of the message is how gear is a tool for storytelling, humility, and liberation. Oh \\u2026 but Kelly does reveal a Japanese gem that takes a guitar signal and reanimates it into anime speech-like phrases!

[Brought to you by D\\u2019Addario XS Electric Strings.]