Nick Giaconia, AKA Mattie Groves grew up on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio in a town known as Kirtland and began playing guitar as a Freshman in High School after an injury sidelined involvement in the sport of wrestling. Nick released the record Center of the Earth in 1994, a recording that was designed to fail in the Christian market. Produced by Ric Hordinski, the record was the favorite of some critics but did not fare well when it came to the buying demographic.In 1998, he began working with Dave Perkins on the Mattie Groves project. Mattie Groves was a band moniker created to provide distance between Nick’s work in the Christian Market and his work in the main stream market. In 2002, the independent movie Home Town Legend, featured the Mattie Groves song You’ll Never Take Me Down. Nick developed a great relationship with Country Music legend Vince Gill, who will frequently play guitar in Mattie Groves. And a very unlikely performance with P-Funk made for an interesting career in the music business.