Crys Matthews writes songs the moment demands. The Nashville-based Americana and folk singer-songwriter has just released a powerful double single, a cover of Ed McCurdy’s “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream” and “Citizen,” an original derivative work built from the bones of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee,” featuring Resistance Revival Chorus. Both are out now.
“Citizen” arrived from a specific, urgent place. As the current administration’s treatment of immigrant communities sharpened in the summer of 2025, Matthews returned to Guthrie’s song and heard a conversation that needed updating. “There is an entirely different conversation that would be had were he trying to write that song now,” she says, “because so much of the indignities being hurled at our immigrant siblings are being hurled at people who are in fact citizens of this country.”
The result is a song that honors Guthrie’s original impetus while speaking directly to the present. Matthews kept as many of Woody’s words intact as possible, preserving the weight of the source material while expanding its scope. “Citizen” is a natural extension of everything Matthews stands for, amplifying voices that go unheard, insisting on the humanity of people this country too often overlooks.
The second half of the release carries equal emotional force. When Matthews played “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream” for her mother, the reaction was immediate. “She had tears in her eyes,” Matthews recalls. “She said it felt like a prayer.” That quality is unmistakable in the recording, a song about the simple, radical act of imagining peace.
The timing of both releases couldn’t be more deliberate. Matthews brings real credibility to this material. She’s the 2025 and 2022 Song of the Year winner at the International Folk Music Awards, the first artist to claim that honor twice since the awards’ inception, and the 2024 Artist of the Year. She’s also recently signed an exclusive publishing and recording agreement with TRO Essex Music Group, home to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Pete Townshend, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, alongside its label arm, Shamus Records.