Chris DeLine

Though it might have some entertainment value, a musical performance by Bao Xishun, who the Guinness Book of World Records currently recognizes as the world’s tallest man, would likely fail to deliver an emotional set of songs that tugs at your heartstrings. Actually, with Xishun’s limited exposure to music, it’d probably fail to sound even remotely decent. Fortunately, we don’t find ourselves facing a similar quandary with the Tallest Man on Earth. Swedish folk singer Kristian Matsson growls, strums, and fingerpicks his way through songs that evoke the best of the genre’s historical patriarchs. Think protest music, if the protest was aimed at metaphorical love. Think a slender busker emptying his soul into his songs for pocket change. But whatever you do, don’t think of a nearly eight-foot-tall Chinese farmer. With Red Cortez and the Parlour Suite. 21+.

[This critics’ pick was originally published by City Pages.]