Matt Cullinan

Sun Reporter

February 1, 2007

Hometown: Cockeysville

Current members: Matt Cullinan, acoustic guitar and vocals

Founded in: 2005

Style: acoustic folk rock

Influenced by: Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, Pat McGee, Ben Harper, the Beatles, James Brown

Notable: Cullinan started landing gigs after playing open mikes around the city. Right now, he's working on an album with a full band. Cullinan said he tries to combine a blues rock sound with the meaningful lyrics of folk rock.

Quotable: "It can definitely be challenging," Cullinan said. "When you play with a band, they really want to groove and they want to rock out. At the same time, we're trying to fit in solid lyrics, too."

The artist: myspace.com/mattcullinan

[Sam Sessa]

sam.sessa@baltsun.com