Well we said we'd bring you 4 folk influenced artists today, and maybe we'll sneak in a bonus 5th one if we have chance - admittedly there's been somewhat of a Swedish bias to our selections today, so maybe we need to find a new Danish or Finnish songwriter to write about. And after featuring an artist (Bolivar) with a wide range of influences, I'm pleased to be able to write about an artist with a more traditional folk background, 'Tim Mattsing'.
So 'Tim Mattsing' is from the coastal city of Oskarshamn, and as you can imagine from a place sitting on the East coast of Sweden, it looks pretty beautiful too. His influences probably owe more towards the likes of Bob Dylan than the varied selection we've featured so far today, and he's self released 2 albums so far, 'Trial and Error' back in 2016 and then in the last couple of months 'Reprobate'.
I've been listening to and considering his music for a while now, and there's an honesty and realism to his songwriting that I like, with storytelling again at the heart of what he does. OK so clearly his releases don't have the big production or budget like some artists we've featured, but to me that just adds to the effect - this is Tim Mattsing's 'world', just him and his guitar. The song that I most like from his album 'Reprobate' is 'At First There's Nothing', and whilst guitar sets out an simple and slightly sad melodic theme, the emphasis is pushed to the lyrics - ''If I walk out the door I can step right into a scene / And see the world look sharper than it does on any screen', he has a lovely way of directly explaining the point he's making. As I've listened more to his music I've started to really appreciate his guitar playing too, sometimes understated, sometimes complex, but there's always variation and you can hear the emotion that goes into his playing.
This is 'At First There's Nothing':
That directness in his lyrics is particularly evident in songs on 'Reprobate' such as 'It Will Be Done Again', another track which I think works well. There are undoubtedly more high profile names releasing albums right now, but please try to immerse yourself in Tim Mattsing's music and words - because he does have something interesting to say, and maybe everyone should find time to take note.
His music is