Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Rhoden.
Hi Matt, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thanks for asking. My story right now is all about the band Cox County Clappers, and the stories about the fictional Cox County.
I grew up in East Tennessee, where storytelling and music were part of my life. I started writing songs and screenplays while studying at UT Knoxville. My senior year, a screenwriting class led to a commission to adapt my professor’s novel for film, and that opened the door to other writing projects that went into development.
The Cox County Clappers started about five years ago. I started writing songs that weren’t indie-rock, not quite country–instead it’s Mountain Rock.
Cox County also became the setting for a TV series I’ve been developing, Cox County Ramblers, populated by feuding families, moonshiners, and musicians like Danny Joe MacAllister and Sue Ellen Lubeck who wander the hills, playing Mountain Rock as they try to make peace between their feuding families.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I divide the Cox County story into two parts—the music and the screenwriting.
The music side draws on Appalachian struggles: moonshining, labor wars, and the tension between independence and control. Having those themes the songs a starting point and a backbone.
Screenwriting, on the other hand, is never easy. The script is just the start—after that comes development, revisions, and pitching. You screenwriters know what I’m talking about..
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
They lyrics of the Clappers and the stories of The Cox County Ramblers are unique because of the place–the fictional Cox County.
In the hills of Cox County, people engage in class struggles, labor struggles, environmental-and-business struggles–just like in the real world. Cox County is different, though, because it doesn’t have Republicans or Democrats or any of the figureheads that have been idolized or demonized in regular non-Cox-County American society. The informational wells haven’t been poisoned here (although Cox County has its own unscrupulous politicians and agenda-led journalists). The fact that Cox County is separate from modern noise is hopefully what makes the stories both mythical and clear-eyed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.coxcountyclappers.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nortonfilms_prod_co/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoxCountyClappers1/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQmtI-3YMbGLgvCzoLRa2OQ
- Other: https://coxcountyclappers.bandcamp.com/track/government-man
