Matt Angus

Sunday April 29th, The Angus family lost one of their founding members, if you will.

"It was 20 years ago when I did my first recording project. I needed $3000 to do it and I had only saved $2000. I was ready to scrap the project when my grandmother and grandfather lent me the extra $1000. I probably would have scrapped the project if I didn't get that bread. I fell in love with recording during that project and Black Potatoe was born. My grandparents (Aletta and Bob) also let my high school band practice in their garage...now that's love!

I traveled quite a few places with my grandmother. When I was younger she took me to the Washington DC, Boston and to many Broadway plays and movies. I saw Yul Brenner in the "King and I", and with her we were the first ones in line to see "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark". As she got older I was lucky enough to return the favor and travel with her to many of the same places we had in my youth. I was driving her so frequently that my family started to refer to me as 'Hoke", like from "Driving Miss Daisey". And not unlike Hoke, I was happy, and now thankful, to do it. The highlight of those later travels was a reunion of my grandfather’s army buddies in New Orleans. My grandmother was one of two widows there. This crowd was much older and somehow their steamboat dinner trip had been cancelled and this group of 30 or so were left with nowhere to go. We had been staying across the street from the House of Blues and I was able to arrange seating for 30. It was great, and believe it or not it was the second House of Blues I was able to take my grandmother to (she had been to the Cambridge one to see us perform).

Alzheimer’s had set in for her in the last few years and the woman I knew had pretty much left a while ago. However, a couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to travel to DC to see her. She was not able to recognize me, but she was all smiles and we even got her to walk downstairs and go outside and sit on the bench for a while. She was still able to remember Sinatra and boy did she love listening to him. Music was important to her and I believe that is a big reason why music is important to me. It was her piano I learned to play music on and just recently it was the same piano we used to record Pinetop Perkins.

My grandmother had a complete life and I was very fortunate to be part of it and have her as part of mine. She is still with me…and always will be.”

Matt Angus


If people would like to make a donation in the name of Aletta Angus they can send a check, in memory of her daughter Kate, to:

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
North Jersey Affiliate
785 Springfield Avenue
Summit, NJ 07901
(908) 277-2904
www.njakomen.org