Club Passim's Matt Smith on 30 Years of Building Community, ep. 344

Club Passim's Matt Smith on 30 Years of Building Community, ep. 344

From Basic Folk by The Bluegrass Situation

May 28, 2026 · 1h 5m · Episode 344

About this episode

Matt Smith discusses his 30-year journey at Club Passim and his impact on the music community.

Matt Smith is a living legend with his unbelievable 30-year run at Club Passim, the historic folk venue nestled in a Harvard Square basement. Currently Managing Director at Passim, Matt is the most passionate music lover I know. He has used his platform at Passim to help establish artists like Lori McKenna, Anaïs Mitchell, Lake Street Dive, and so many more. I met Matt while working as a student at WERS 88.9FM, where he brought fantastic shows to a listening room filled with people who were clambering for honest music in an intimate space. He's been a very good friend and mentor to myself and thousands of musicians since he began his tenure at the club in 1995. In honor of Matt's 30th anniversary at Passim, we brought two longtime friends on the pod to talk to him about his role in the Passim community – and beyond. Musicians Edie Carey and Dinty Child join us in conversation with Matt; he shares advice he would give his younger self, we chat about what a vacation without music would look like and his incredible memory. That memory is tested in our lightning round where he answers Passim trivia (almost 100% correctly). There's also a discussion about what Matt is most proud of in…

People in this episode

Host: unknown

Guests: Matt Smith, Edie Carey, Dinty Child

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Club Passim, WERS 88.9FM

Books & works: Basic Folk

Places: Harvard Square

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