Photography by Julia Cartwright
Matt Hillyer is Dallas music. The hometown product has been entertaining for nearly his whole life, sending shockwaves into just about every country ballroom in the state. Hillyer is releasing his third solo album, Glorieta.
“Glorieta is a place right outside of Santa Fe; my mom has a spread down there,” Hillyer says. “When the world shut down, I packed my youngest daughter in the car and went out to see her.”
“Glorieta” doubles as both the album name and title track for the thumping Americana record.
“There’s a feeling to the song about getting out, getting out of Dallas,” he says.
After his Glorieta pilgrimage, Hillyer joined a songwriters group with other Dallas artists. The group requires its members to write and submit one song each week. Hillyer says most of the songs on Glorieta came from the group.
“During COVID, I thought if we don’t come out of this with a boatload of songs, we’re not real songwriters,” he says. “If you work out that muscle, it’s going to get better.”
The album is Hillyer’s first release since his rockabilly band Eleven Hundred Springs disbanded after performing their farewell show at the Granada Theater. Founded by Hillyer and bassist Steven Berg in 1998, it quickly grew to iconic in the Dallas music scene with songs like “We’re From Texas” and “Raise Hell Drink Beer.”
“I’m happy with the way we closed that chapter,” Hillyer says. “We did something long enough that we can look over our shoulder and see the way we influenced some musicians in the same way that we were influenced too.”
On March 25, Hillyer will celebrate the release of Glorieta at the Kessler Theater with a show featuring special guest Bart Crow.
As Hillyer enters a new stage of his career, he looks to lean on the style that’s kept him working in Dallas for nearly four decades.
“Expect a lot of the same flavor,” he says. “It’s still me writing the songs.”
