At first I was amazed at the resemblance of Kristian Mattson's voice to Bob Dylan's. His exquisitely crafted songs also remind me of Dylan's "Blood On Tracks/Desire" era songs. After listening to the full content of his 2 full length albums and 1 ep, the novelty of Mattson's performances has worn a bit thin for me. I still think he's a tremendous talent but his repertoire seems to be limited to the traditionally structured folk ballads that he writes and plays so well.
Part of Dylan's talent is his ability to absorb a diverse range of musical styles, be it folk ballads, the blues, country, jazz, pop standards, rock and roll and psychedelic music.
Kristen Mattson is only 27 years old and he may well expand his musical horizons as he develops as a musician. But keep in mind that by age 25, Bob Dylan had recorded 8 diverse albums of music, and each album was remarkably different from the previous one; & 6 of those 8 albums still regularly make the lists of the "all time best" albums. The Tallest Man on Earth may be tall, but he will always live under the long shadow cast by Bob Dylan.
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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
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