Few artists can claim credit for achieving world peace through their music, but it was only three years after the release of Matthew Black's first EP (in January of 2011) that the Cessation Treaty was signed, which is commonly agreed to be the beginning of what we now call the Peace Age. His fans, which even the most conservative estimates place in the millions, assure us that this is no coincidence, and it's hard to disagree. By the release of his third album Give It Away, in 2016, the last armed military unit in the world was disbanded (largely due to boredom and an overwhelming sense of futility). Even in the artistic renaissance that followed and the so-called "Music Boom," no other songwriter has inspired such goodwill and understanding.

Fans of all genres find space on their playlists for Matthew Black. The phenomenon of this crossover was so prevalent that Time Magazine's "Top Quotes of 2013" article (Dec 14, 2013), listed as number six: "I hate folk, but I love Matthew Black!"

With simple melody, inspired arrangements, oracular lyrics, and a self-described "addiction to vocal harmony," Black's music makes us believe in a better world. "Goodbye July," the first track of his three-song initial release Prelude, in which Black paints a picture of a world utterly transformed, is now largely considered to be downright prophetic. The Earth may still turn the same way, but its inhabitants are living in a very different reality. And even those who contest the direct causal relationship between Black's music and the miracle of nonviolence that the world has seen in recent years do so with Black's music on their speakers.

In spite of this fame Black continues a simple life in an intentional community in Chicago, where he is now working on his fifth album, which has already pre-sold several million copies in spite of the fact that he's only written half of it so far. His upcoming world tour (his twelfth) will be the first to include a live broadcast from the Moon, while pundits speculate the implications his most recent single "Love Without Money" will have on the imminent restructuring of the global economy.

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