Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, Mercer County folks can say they knew Mike Matisa and Karly C. “when.” That is, when they were playing acoustic duos in small places around Hamilton and Princeton.
Now they have their own high-energy country-rock group, Karly C and the Rebel Y’all Band, and are performing for thousands of people.
Matisa and Karly C., with the Rebel Y’all Band, have been playing steadily to enthusiastic crowds at venues ranging from country music clubs at the Jersey Shore and Delaware beaches to the luxe showrooms of area casinos, as well as regional and local festivals.
In June, they played the Barefoot Country Music Festival in Wildwood, appearing the same day that superstar Post Malone was the headliner.
“People wanted pictures with us, and I must have signed 40 or 50 autographs,” Karly says. “I thought to myself ‘this is different.’”
Closer to home, Karly C and the Rebel Y’all Band will play a free concert at the Burlington County Amphitheater in Westampton on Saturday, Aug. 15. South Jersey-based singer Grace Haley opens the evening of music.
In addition to Karly C. on lead vocals and acoustic guitar and Matisa on rhythm guitar, banjitar and vocals, the band consists of Bordentown’s Matt Nardone on lead guitar and vocals; Tink Thompson of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, on fiddle; Beau Rosin of Hamilton on bass and vocals; and Tabernacle resident Chris Broski on drums and vocals.
When this writer last checked in on Hamilton natives Mike and Karly Matisa, who are now married, it was 2018, and Karly had just begun to shift her interests toward contemporary country music, learning numerous songs and crafting quite a few of her own. Matisa worked in the background, encouraging his future wife while also cultivating connections with producers, session players, radio promoters, publicists and other industry professionals.
At the time, Karly Coleman, a 2011 Steinert High School graduate, had released a 10-song debut album and was working with several producers on possible singles and another EP. Her music had also attracted interest beyond the United States through a production music publishing agreement with an Australian company that submitted her work to major international publishers.
She had collaborated with producer and composer Edgard Jaude, whose work included music for television and film, and had recorded with other producers working in pop and electronic dance music. Although the projects crossed genres, they helped Karly develop the powerful, slightly raspy vocal style that would eventually fit naturally with contemporary country and country-rock.
Listeners have compared her voice to performers ranging from Linda Ronstadt to Miley Cyrus. Matisa previously described her sound as a combination of Pat Benatar and Joan Jett with some country influence. Karly’s own musical interests have included Adele, Lady Gaga, Sia, Ariana Grande and the hard-rock bands of the 1980s.
“Our main focus is to establish Karly as a recording artist, and we’ve put in an effort to build up her catalog of originals,” Matisa says.
Now that country music has exploded in popular culture, they are both ready to jump into the scene boots first.
Matisa and Karly C.’s pivot from a modest acoustic duo to a powerhouse contemporary country band began only about a year ago. The process started in August 2025, when the two strategized about how to put their own band together.
“Once we had our lineup we’d put a promotional video together in the fall of 2025, and shopped it around, blasting emails to venues in the tri-state radius, and things started to catch fire,” Matisa says. “We booked a bunch of shows on our own, but agencies started to reach out to us, so we worked with them, and really lucked out. We now have 40 shows planned almost to the end of this year.”
As of this writing, they already have two shows booked at Parx Casino and another two at MudHen Brewing Co. in Wildwood for 2027.
They do all this while working full time, Karly for Virtua Health and Matisa for SiriusXM.
“Our first show in 2026 was January 9 at The West, at Caesars, Atlantic City” he adds. “The big surprise to us, just three months into the new band, we were invited to be part of the Barefoot Country Music Festival in Wildwood, where we played on June 20th, mostly originals. It’s a four-day festival with some major acts. It’s just been great between the agencies, the venues and the fans.”
Indeed, Karly was leaning toward country music about 10 years ago.
“Funny thing is, all of a sudden country is the hottest thing,” Matisa says. “Karly had her first song on country radio in 2019.”
But the Rebel Y’all Band does not just play country music. The group can rock out to Guns N’ Roses, Whitesnake and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others. Karly can sing just about anything.
“Our shows are mostly country, but we throw in classic rock, some pop songs, ‘80s singalongs, etc.,” Matisa says. “People have started to yell out ‘Freebird,’ so we decided to do it and the audience loves it.”
Karly C. reflects that, although her family was not particularly musical, her parents saw that she was passionate about music even as a child. Her mother bought her a toy microphone, and Karly took to it like a natural.
She played clarinet and violin at Crockett Middle School and Steinert High School, but she also experimented with piano and guitar at a young age.
“I could play guitar and piano by around age 12, and I learned songs by watching YouTube videos,” she says. “I would watch and mimic how they played the piano, and then I learned chords and figured things out on my own from there.”
Her earliest public singing experience came through annual recitals while taking childhood vocal lessons. She later auditioned for “American Idol” and advanced through multiple rounds after performing an Adele song.
Before meeting Matisa, however, she had not sung regularly with a band. Much of her early experience consisted of singing alone at home and teaching herself songs by ear.
Matisa has also been musically inclined since his youth and, in different capacities, has been part of the New Jersey music scene for decades.
It was through their mothers that the two reluctantly met.
“Our moms kind of forced us to meet — we were not into it,” Karly says. “My mom told me that Mike was having a gig. I went to his mom’s house, he pulled up karaoke on her computer, and I just had to sing on the spot.”
“I’ll never forget her from that first night when she got up to sing with my band — she came up fearless,” Matisa says. “She had never sung live before and she was amazing. I thought she had both star quality and a radio-ready voice.”
In addition to all the successful live performances, Karly C.’s original songs have placed on MusicRow magazine’s CountryBreakout Radio Chart.
Her latest is “The Grass Looks Greener,” a thoughtful but upbeat reflection on how happiness can be found through gratitude and not by comparing oneself to others.
“As of recently, it was number 73 on ‘Music Row’s’ Country Breakout Radio Chart through spin tracking of reporting FM stations,” Karly C. says. “It’s also in rotation on a number of online radio stations around the globe.”
“It’s her fourth time appearing on that chart,” Matisa says. “Karly works a single for about 20 to 25 weeks, and we’re about 12 weeks in. We have between now and November to see how far the song goes. Last year, her song ‘You’ve Seen Heaven’ made it to number 42, and spent 16 weeks on the charts.”
Karly has been in communication with Nashville-based producer and guitarist Dylan Maloney, who has worked with Colt Ford, and will travel to Music City from Aug. 25-28 for three or four days of scheduled sessions to collaborate with other songwriters.
The trip will not be her first exposure to Nashville. She had visited the city years earlier and was drawn to its concentration of performers and live music. Even then, she talked about returning regularly and becoming more involved in its music community.
“Dylan has the connections,” Karly says. “We’ve known him for about seven years, but just recently out of the blue he said, ‘I want to get you to Nashville and meet some writers from Sony Music as well as some independents who’ve worked with Jason Aldean, etc.’ He’s going to try and get us a record deal, as he’s done for a few other people. This was all his idea.”
“In the next month or so, we’ll do photo shoots, sessions with other writers, and record an EP (extended play recording), shop it around and see what happens,” she says. “You can do a lot from your home, but you really have to be there (in Nashville) to break out.”
“I think I’m more excited about this than Karly is,” Matisa says. “This is what we’ve been working towards, this is what counts.”
Karly did have some opportunities to perform with other regional country bands, but in her heart, and Matisa’s, they both knew their own band would be a better fit, much more fun and much more personal.
“Now that I have my own band, I don’t have to stand still behind the microphone, and I spend half the night out in the crowd,” she says. “I want to make the audience part of the show.”
“I wanted to feel every word, connect with every person in the crowd, and create moments that people would carry home,” she adds. “That’s where I found my purpose.”
Karly C and the Rebel Y’all Band will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Burlington County Amphitheater, 5 Pioneer Blvd., adjacent to the Burlington County Library in Westampton. Grace Haley opens the show at 6 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 609-265-5858 or visit rebelyallband.com.
Karly C. on the web: karlycmusic.com.
Mike Matisa on the web: mikematisa.com
