American underground metal artist Mike Matney sought out multi-platinum producer/artist Stevie Salas to turn out The Red Neck & The Red Man a dirty, swampy, bluesy, heavy, powerful, guitar filled, beat driven, current Outlaw Southern Rock album. Matney earned a reputation in the metal underground for his guitar prowess, unique vocal style and song writing capabilities. His debut album White Boy and The Average Rat Band is highly sought after by collectors worldwide topping lists at $1,000 a copy. Matney has spent a lot of time in Nashville. There he got to rub shoulders with such greats as diverse as Roy Acuff and Wille Dixon. Mikes music under the WBATARB name has been written about in books and magazines for years The Acid Archives, LA Record, etc... Most recently featured in the new book, Heroes of American Metal. The Red Neck & The Red Man is produced by Stevie Salas who also co-wrote the tracks and provided lead guitar. Rolling Stone called Stevie Salas one of the 50 greatest guitarists of all time He was Rod Stewart's guitar player, and he has 2 separate million solo albums. He has produced and performed with such greats as Mick Jagger and Justin Timberlake George Clinton Jeff Healey etc. He was musical director on American Idol for ten years. The collaboration began when Matney reached out to Salas online. They soon found out they had mutual friends and Salas agreed to produce a record for Matney. The sessions were in Austin TX at Assembly Line Studios with Kevin Gutierrez engineering. Matney had told his wife and friends that being a big fan he hoped Salas might play on one of the tracks, but Stevie had told Mike earlier that he hadn't been playing as much lately. Before the first sessions were over songs were arranged and rearranged and verses were taken out, others were put in and Salas had helped write and played on all the tracks. Salas wanted to bring in Matt Noveskey, from the band Blue October, to play bass on a few tracks. The result was a combination of styles that resulted in The Red Neck and The Redman. Mike Matney & Stevie Salas are the Red Neck & the Red Man.