Highway 58

Location: R.A. Fountain

Highway 58 was formed about 8 years ago by Kinston’s Clyde Mattocks as an outlet for his true passion, playing classic bluegrass music as fast as it can be played. Mattocks, who has been called “the best pedal steel player in North Carolina,” is joined in Highway 58 by John Booker of Greenville on bass; Danny Morris of Vanceboro on guitar; Tim Myatt of Snow Hill on banjo; and Don Batten of New Bern on mandolin.

“We named the band because two of us live on NC 58,” said Mattocks, “and another one of us lives just off of it.”

Mattocks is an original member of SuperGrit Cowboy Band, which was formed in 1980, but Highway 58 is about nothing but bluegrass music: “We’re a straight-ahead bluegrass band,” he said. “Nothing else.”

Mattocks also plays banjo and dobro and is a popular studio artist, having worked on CDs by Two Dollar Pistols, Catesby Jones, the Flying Pigs, P.J. O’Connell, the Mac and Tammy McRoy Band, Steve March, and the Malpass Family, with whom he often also performs.

Mattocks has released two CDs on Supergrit’s Hoodswamp label, Hugging the Hound and Over My Shoulder. His original songs frequently make Mike Gross’s monthly Top 10 listings for his “Singin’ West” radio show out of Texas.

Tags: bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, Concert, tradtional bluegrass