Matthew Arcara is a flatpicker and luthier from the Boston area. He won the National Flatpicking Championship at Winfield, Kansas, in 2006 after placing second there in 2004. He founded the string band Joy Kills Sorrow, which recorded four albums between 2006 and 2013. He now builds guitars and banjos under the MGA Guitars name in South Portland, Maine.
Why Arcara matters
Arcara took the contest flatpicker’s clean tone into a band that mixed bluegrass with indie pop and jazz. Joy Kills Sorrow played Telluride, RockyGrass, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and A Prairie Home Companion. For a jammer, he shows that contest chops and song accompaniment belong to the same craft. He then turned that playing experience into guitar building.
Life and career
Arcara grew up in the Boston area. His father gave him his first guitar, an old Gibson. He learned woodworking in middle school and built his first guitars as a student. When he won Winfield in 2006 he was a 26-year-old musician and carpenter living in Allston, Massachusetts.
He entered the Winfield flatpick contest four times. He placed second in 2004 and won a Martin HD-28VR. He made the final five in 2005. In 2006 he won first place, $2,000, and a Collings Winfield Model guitar.
Arcara founded Joy Kills Sorrow in Boston in 2005. The band won the Podunk Bluegrass Festival band contest in 2007. Its final lineup included Emma Beaton on vocals, Wes Corbett on banjo, Jacob Jolliff on mandolin, and Zoe Guigueno on bass. Bridget Kearney and Joe Walsh played in earlier lineups. The band released Joy Kills Sorrow (2006), Darkness Sure Becomes This City (2010), This Unknown Science (2011), and the EP Wide Awake (2013). It ended in 2014.
After the band, Arcara turned to lutherie. He studied with builders Julius Borges, John Slobod of Circa Guitars, Scott Conley, and violin maker Jon Cooper. He also worked in high-end construction and furniture making. He builds in South Portland, Maine, by hand with hot hide glue, on the pattern of 1930s Martin dreadnoughts and orchestra models.
Playing style
Arcara plays with the even tone and steady time that Winfield judges reward. In Joy Kills Sorrow he worked as an accompanist as much as a soloist, so his rhythm playing had to sit under a singer and a banjo without crowding them. Acoustic Guitar magazine filmed a lesson with him, which is the clearest look at his right hand.
Influences and legacy
Arcara’s guitars draw on prewar Martin designs, and his playing background shapes how he voices them. He played beside Wes Corbett, Jacob Jolliff, Bridget Kearney, and Joe Walsh in Joy Kills Sorrow. His instruments now show up in the hands of other flatpickers, which is a second kind of legacy for a contest winner.
Essential recordings
Darkness Sure Becomes This City, Joy Kills Sorrow (Signature Sounds, 2010) This Unknown Science, Joy Kills Sorrow (2011) Wide Awake, Joy Kills Sorrow (2013)
Awards and honors
National Flatpicking Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (2006) National Flatpicking Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, second place (2004) Podunk Bluegrass Festival band contest, first place, with Joy Kills Sorrow (2007)
Watch and listen
Acoustic Guitar magazine filmed a short lesson with Arcara. Watch how little his right hand moves while the notes stay even.
What to learn from Arcara
Learn to back a singer the way he did in Joy Kills Sorrow. Play a fiddle tune’s chords with a boom-chuck that stays quiet and steady for three minutes, then play the melody on top at the same volume. The technique to steal is his economy. Small right-hand motion, clean notes, no wasted swing. That is what won him Winfield and what a jam needs from its guitar player.
Sources
Winners archive, alphabetical, Walnut Valley Festival Matthew Arcara, Pickers Paradise Joy Kills Sorrow, Wikipedia About, MGA Guitars Arcara guitars, The Music Emporium Joy Kills Sorrow, Darkness Sure Becomes This City, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Other Winfield champions on this site include Allen Shadd, Dillon Hodges, and Bryan McDowell.