WATCH: Matt Pond PA Shares ‘Risky Business’

New album, The Ballad of the Natural Lines, out Feb. 7th

January 17, 2025January 17, 2025 Ron Hart 0 Comments Bella Union, Chris Hansen, Matt Pond, Matt Pond PA, Risky Business, The Ballad of the Natural Lines

Matt Pond PA returns in 2025 with a brilliant new album called The Ballad of the Natural Lines.

But while the LP, Pond’s 14th, isn’t out until Feb. 7, today the Philadelphia native and his longtime cohort Chris Hansen (my old schoolmate from Wallkill Senior High School) are happy to share the video for the album’s first single, “Risky Business,” no doubt one of the prettiest songs the band has ever composed.

Matt Pond PA The Ballad of the Natural Lines, Sonder House 2025

“When I was 19, I used to hitchhike between Burlington, VT and Hanover, NH,” Pond explains of the song snd its accompanying video. which you can check out below. “I had cut the tendons in my right hand by accident — couldn’t drive, couldn’t work — so every week that winter, I made the strange pilgrimage back and forth. Traveling salesmen, exiled preachers, wayward husbands — these drifters always had a story to tell and a gospel to preach on the road. Last week, we unknowingly reenacted that ritual at Cooper Lake in Woodstock, NY. Twenty degrees in the bed of a pickup truck, I felt the old wildness creep back—the thrill of riding with a stranger. What would it smell like? What would I say? Would I live?’ve come to believe that even the most upright citizens need a little risky business. A little danger, a little abandon to shake things loose.”

The Ballad of The Natural Lines, a sequel to 2023’s The Natural Lines, will be out on the Sonder House label.

Pre-save for the album here.

ON TOUR
w/Anya Marina and Bathtub Cig

WED 1/29 – Somerville, MA – The Rockwell

THU 1/30 – Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace

FRI 1/31 – Brooklyn, NY – Union Pool

SAT 2/1 – West Nyack, NY – Rockland Ctr for the Arts

SUN 2/2 – The Hamilton Live – DC

TUE 2/4 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Tavern

WED 2/5 – Pittsburgh, PA – Pittsburgh Winery

FRI 2/7 – Baltimore, MD – Club 603

SAT 2/8 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s