I stumbled across The Tallest Man on Earth a few months ago. The man in question is not Sultan Kosen, the 8ft 1 Turkish gentleman you can find in the Guinness Book of Records, but a Swedish folk musician called Kristian Matsson. I have fallen in love with everything that I've heard from this guy. All of his music is just his voice and a guitar but he does unspeakable amounts with that combo. His voice is so rusty and particular, something I love in a vocalist; and it's probably aided by his Swedish accent. His guitar parts aren't all gentle, pensive pickings either- they're often hard and raw, or swift and deft. They occassionally have this huge, captivating air that is less "yeehaw, ho-down!" and more indie rock singalong (watch "King of Spain", below). The comparisons to Bob Dylan are obvious, but there's a lot more to this guy than just being "the next Dylan". His sound is possibly the most unique and heartfelt thing I've heard all year. His lyrics are personal and impressive for someone who uses English as a second language. There may occasionally be big, vague words and phrases like "golden highway", but Matsson infuses them with an honesty and frankness that you'd be an idiot to argue with. It would also be foolish to peg him as just another also-ran in the recent folk revival, somewhere behind Laura Marling, Mumford and Sons, Noah and the Whale et al (but their rise to fame may pave the way for an artists who deserves a much wider audience)His first EP came out in 2006, a good year or two before the aforementioned British acts released any material. He's 27 and carries an honest world weariness that I think is only matched by Laura Marling in folk music right now.
Below is a link to download the track "Like The Wheel" from his recent EP Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird. I highly recommend his album from earlier this year, The Wild Hunt.
Like The Wheel: http://stereogum.com/498601/the-tallest-man-on-earth-like-th-wheel/mp3s/
Credit to Stereogum and Pitchfork for the link and video respectively.
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