Matthew McConaughey Picks Up the Mandolin: 'Quill' Arrives Ahead of The Rivals of Amziah King

Matthew McConaughey is singing and playing the mandolin in a new music video released on Friday, 9 August — and it is not a side project. The song, called 'Quill', is the first single from the original soundtrack of The Rivals of Amziah King, the Oklahoma-set bluegrass drama that reaches theatres on 14 August. (Deadline)

Lakeshore Records put the single out across streaming platforms, including Spotify, and published an official music video on YouTube. The label teased the release on its Facebook and Instagram channels a day earlier, on 8 August. (Facebook, YouTube)

McConaughey performs the track alongside Ben Hardesty, with Miranda Zickler, Angelina LookingGlass and Andrea Pister featured. The song has been described as Americana-inspired — a natural fit for a film steeped in backwoods Oklahoma and bluegrass strings. (Deadline, Entertainment Tonight on Facebook)

In the film, McConaughey plays Amaziah King — a musically gifted man who runs the premier honey-making operation in town with his bluegrass-playing band of misfits. The story follows their exploits deep in the Oklahoma backwoods. (Deadline)

The Rivals of Amziah King was written and directed by Andrew Patterson, whose 2019 debut The Vast of Night earned a cult following for its razor-sharp dialogue and long, unbroken camera moves. The cast alongside McConaughey includes Angelina LookingGlass, Cole Sprouse, Jake Horowitz, Tony Revolori and Kurt Russell. The producing team is David Heyman, Teddy Schwarzman, Jeffrey Clifford, Michael Heimler, James Montague and Will Greenfield. (Deadline)

For audiences, the 'Quill' video offers an early taste of the film's sound and texture five days before opening. McConaughey has sung on screen before — most memorably in Mud and, briefly, Dallas Buyers Club — but a full bluegrass performance with mandolin in hand is fresh territory. The clip, first highlighted by People on 8 August, shows him in character, strumming and harmonising with Hardesty. (People)

With the soundtrack now rolling out and the theatrical release days away, the film's rollout is firmly in its marketing corridor — the window where a studio pushes every available asset, from singles to clips, to build awareness before the first weekend numbers land.