Adventures With Vultures

A folk singer-songwriter evokes a certain image. Matt Sauter breaks that image. With his backward ball cap, knuckle tattoos, and knee-shredded shorts, the lone singer/songwriter behind Adventures with Vultures tinkers with the image of what a folk singer should be. Adventures With Vultures’ Matt Sauter, who was a mere 24 years old when he signed with Original 1265 Recordings, hails from Plymouth—a small town that sits roughly 25 miles outside of Detroit. That location is crucial to his music: a rural area outside a major city. After all, like all good folk music, Adventures With Vultures’ songs are about specific places and the people who give those places their personality. Stylistically, it’s different from what Sauter is used to—he spent the better part of this decade writing hip-hop music, not folk music. Mos Def and J. Cole are cited among his influences, but so are Carol King, Shakey Graves, and Nathaniel Rateliff. Perhaps that’s why Adventures With Vultures brings a welcome, abrasive quality to tender, stripped-down songs.