Kristian Matsson of Dalarna, Sweden, aka The Tallest Man on Earth, isn’t even 6 feet tall. But his formation of stunning prose (in English), moving meter and vintage fingerpicking adds up to a larger-than-life music phenomenon.
After listening to the poetry of Matsson’s songs, you can’t help but replay the words over and over again. On the first track of his debut LP Shallow Grave, “I Won’t Be Found,” he ponders the splendor of being alone with nature: “I’m gonna float up in the ceiling/ I built a levee of the stars/ And in my field of tired horses/ I built a freeway through this farce.”
Opener S. (Sean) Carey – known for his percussive work with the folk outfit Bon Iver – also happens to be a lover of the woods and one hell of a singer-songwriter. His tranquilly dissonant solo debut All We Grow may be highly personal but its themes of self-discovery, matrimony and personal growth are easy to relate to.
“[My wife and I] didn’t mess around,” says Carey from his hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “We met and 11 months later we were married; through all of that, I was writing and on tour with Bon Iver.”
In addition to Carey’s recent dive into married life, his experiences touring through Europe and Australia and meeting new people also influenced the album.
“I wrote about the changes in my life and how everything was morphing very quickly,” Carey says. “I also wrote about growing as a person and coming into my own as a musician.”
The nine-track LP is about the life of a musician living simply and always stopping to appreciate his humble pastoral surroundings. The lyrical set up on “In the Dirt,” is low-key, but each minimal utterance speaks viscerally: “Don’t leave cause I believe/ We were meant to see in the dirt.”
Carey plans to continue doing exactly what he’s been doing: enjoying marriage, making his own music, playing drums with Bon Iver and of course, connecting with his inner mountain man.
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