Guitar world

The Tallest Man on Earth: Shallow Grave

In the twenty-first century, the classic “man and acoustic guitar folk album” formula seems to be a little bit forgotten. After all, this formula was done to perfection during the twentieth century by many musicians including Nick Drake, Loudon Wainwright III, and most significantly, Bob Dylan, just to name a few. In recent years, Sam Beam of Iron and Wine worked with this blueprint but moved away from it with his 2007 release Shepherd’s Dog. And although Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago has been getting lots of (much deserved) praise this year, its final product features a menagerie of guitars, voices, drums, and sounds that certainly put it out of the simple formula of yesteryear. It might appear that there is nothing new the “man and acoustic guitar” template can offer music lovers in the new millennium. Kristian Matsson, performing under the moniker of The Tallest Man on Earth, soundly proves that wrong on his full-length debut, Shallow Grave. Even more surprising is the fact that this man (who is of average height) seems to understand American folk music better than any other performer today is from Sweden.

It’s difficult to listen to more than a few minutes of this record before the Bob Dylan comparisons begin to creep through the ears and into the mind. Matsson’s voice lies somewhere between early Dylan and Hank Williams Sr. and his songs crackle and bristle with the creativity and energy heard on Dylan’s early folk albums. Most of these songs feature some lightning-quick, country-folk guitar plucking and picking with only three songs “Honey Won’t You Let Me In”, “The Gardener”, and “This Wind” featuring typical chord strumming. And strum those chords he does, as if he were never going to get to play another song again. Each song features Matsson’s voice, some lo-fi hiss, and his masterful guitar playing with no percussion except what sounds like a rapid foot-stomp on “The Sparrow and the Medicine.” A banjo appears occasionally in the background and even as the primary instrument on two songs, which adds a hillbilly aspect the record, furthering Matsson’s apparent familiarity with and understanding of certain strains of American music.

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