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During the 1960s, Bob Dylan rose as a folk icon off the heels of “This Land is Your Land” craftsman Woody Guthrie. In the beginning, Dylan wore Guthrie on his sleeve, writing the same simple yet evocative traditional folk songs. They were political, championing the everyman. Most of all, though, they had beautiful, moving imagery.
Now, in the latter part of this century’s first decade, a Swedish man named Kristian Matsson has been working to recreate Dylan in much the same way Dylan recreated Guthrie. Playing under the moniker The Tallest Man on Earth, Matsson has accomplished the same revival of classical folk stylings for contemporary ears on his sophomore album “The Wild Hunt.” Armed with just a guitar and superior picking power, Matsson marches on with vocals bearing a Dylanesque warble and crack.
Do not expect to ever see “This Machine Kills Fascists” across Matsson’s guitar, though. He may be a folk singer, but when you hail from a socialist haven like Sweden, it is apparently hard to speak much of the plight of the working class. Instead, Matsson writes songs full of love and emotion, complete with the bizarre wordplay that made for Dylan’s best sentimental moments. That is not to say “The Wild Hunt” is just 10 variations on “I Want You.” Matsson sets himself apart from other Dylan wannabes by being an expert songwriter in his own right.
Musically, he does so much over the course of three minutes that you have to keep reminding yourself it is just him and his acoustic. Vocally, he sings with such earnest that his voice strains to get the words out, all as if he were pouring everything he has out in front of you. The third track, “Troubles Will Be Gone,” perhaps best captures the power this combination can have. As Matsson moves into the final verse, he forces out, “Oh darlin’, when it’s you I see in headlights drivin’ down the golden highway and salvation in the beauty of its embrace.” It may look like a load of nonsense on paper, but when Matsson sings it you would think it was the most important thing you have heard all day.
On the following track, “You’re Going Back,” Matsson spends nearly the entire three minutes shouting out his poetically mysterious lines, opening with, “I could roll you to hell, I could swim in your heavens.” The song has the same effect as the rest of his work, forcing the listener to hear meaning where it may not even exist.
Like Dylan, Matsson has a surprising dark side. On “Love is All,” Matsson sings, “Well I’ve walked upon the river like it’s easier than land, evil is in my pocket and your will is in my hand.” He continues, “Love is all from what I’ve heard but my heart’s learned to kill.” Of course, he’s just painting heartbreak with a black brush, but the effect is haunting all the same.
Matsson may be a Dylan-phile, going so far as a shout out on “King of Spain” in the line “boots of Spanish leather.” What he is not is some kind of cheap imitator. Like the album’s cover image of a wide plain under blue-pink clouds, Matsson’s music stretches out into beautiful expanses. He may not be the tallest man yet, but he’s growing.
Grade: A
