Made up of Sarah Zimmermann and Justin Davis, Striking Matches came to Nashville simply to play music. Sarah, a Philadelphia native and Justin, from Atlanta, met when a professor at Belmont University paired them at random to play for a classroom full of guitar majors. The pair has been writing and performing ever since. Their influences range from Jerry Reed to the Beatles, John Mayer to Patsy Cline, and back again. It becomes more obvious every day that they were born to play music together. Striking Matches’ debut self-titled EP was produced by Luke Wooten (Dierks Bentley, Dustin Lynch) with all four tracks co-written by the band. The EP released October 2012 was named among iTunes “Best of 2012″ and enabled the duo to score features with NPR and The Wall Street Journal. In December 2012, Striking Matches made their debut on the Grand Ole Opry where they have subsequently played more than twenty times. Striking Matches has shared the stage with John Hiatt, Vince Gill, Hunter Hayes, Martina McBride, Matt Nathanson, The Fray, Billy Currington, Kip Moore, Ashley Monroe and many more. They were named a CMT Listen Up artist in September 2013 and became the first artist signed to the newly launched I.R.S. Records Nashville. They have just finished recording their debut CD, set for a fall 2014 release with T. Bone Burnett producing. The duo has had six songs featured on ABC’s hit show “Nashville.” two of their songs, including “Like New” (written with Jonathan Singleton) and “I Ain’t Leavin’ Without Your Love” (written with Cary Barlowe) which feature in the current series.
