Born in 1974 to Ray and Paula Zeiner, Matt began his musical education early. From the time he was a baby, his parents trained him to love and respect music. His father, a musician himself, would spend several hours a day tapping rhythms on his back when Matt was a baby (probably where Matt got the annoying habit). His mother would sing small excerpts of famous classical pieces and teach him to name the composers as soon as he could talk. Matt's father, Ray - organist, pianist, vocalist, and songwriter - was always playing, singing or listening to music. Classical, blues, R&B, gospel - at any given time - all of the truly great western music could be heard in the house, whether Ray was playing or listening.

When Matt was 5, he began studying classical piano with Charlotte Anderson. Charlotte was the mother of Al Anderson of NRBQ fame. Al had played with Matt's father in a late '60s band called the Wildweeds that had a national No. 1 hit with "No Good to Cry." Charlotte was forbidden from teaching Matt anything but classical despite the fact that she was an excellent jazz player herself. Ray's long struggle with the music business made him decide that a career in music was not appropriate for Matt, and therefore he made it his first priority to educate, but not encourage. It was solely up to Matt to teach himself anything but classical piano.

While in high school, Matt met Bob Carabillo, a tenor saxophone player who was playing with Dave Stoltz at the time. Bob encouraged Matt to develop his jazz playing abilities already under development. Matt studied Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Smith, Count Basie, Miles, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock and others. He began the arduous task of transcription and analysis. Since Matt had no formal training in Jazz theory, he was forced to analyze these players not in terms of mathematics, as a schooled jazz musician would, but in terms of the subjective psychological effect each line and scale had on him.

At this time, his mother bought him his first Hammond organ and Leslie for $200 and he began gigging. He played organ trio gigs around Hartford, much to his father's disappointment. After high school, Matt went on to the University of Connecticut where he began his studies in Latin, Greek and the Classics. Although he wasn't a member of the music department, and was not allowed to take classes in music, the department saw his talent and he was given a seat in the jazz lab band, took some lessons in Jazz theory with Ellen Rowe, and sat in on many jazz combo classes with Dave Santoro.

Although Matt was thankful for the generosity of the jazz department, the jazz scene at school didn't really appeal much to him as the emphasis, again, was on craftsmanship more so than the art itself. Matt eventually left UConn to pile into a van and tour with Matt "Guitar" Murphy of Blues Brothers fame. Matt Murphy was Zeiner's first serious education in the Blues, but Murphy was more than just your average Bluesman. Matt's band was made up of himself and a group of top-notch New York jazz musicians. The band played everything from hard jazz-fusion to straight Blues. Murphy, himself an excellent jazz player, encouraged the band to stretch out and play whatever they wanted - there were no wrong notes, there was no "blues nazi-ism." It was all about the music and the wonderful fusion that comes from having such a diverse group of musicians.

Matt toured with Murphy for some time before he decided it was time to get home and buckle down. Matt embarked on a technical vocation as an audio engineer working in some of the most state of the art movie theatres in the country, installing and designing audio systems. He continued to play out locally, but began focusing on writing and built a small studio in his home where he could write and record in his spare time.

The summer of 2000 brought Matt back into the music biz when he got a call from Dave Stoltz, with whom he had played many times since their initial meeting in high school. Dave told him that Dickey Betts was putting a new band together, and needed a keyboard player and vocalist for his band. Zeiner jumped at the opportunity to audition, and after a gig in Utah with Matt Murphy, he got on the first plane to Sarasota to meet Dickey. After making the cut into the band, Matt toured with the band and came to realize that he had found a kindred spirit in Dickey, especially in terms of songwriting.

Dickey picked two of Matt's tunes and asked him to rework parts of "Tombstone Eyes" so that Matt could sing the tune with the kind of conviction that such a piece of music demanded. Matt was able to add his own personal note to the tune without sacrificing the artistic intent and meaning that Dickey was so eager to put forth. Matt looks forward to writing more with Dickey in the future. Matt lives in Windsor, Connecticut with his lovely lady, Stacey Leigh and their dog Maxwell.