Metsa is a beat-influenced motor mouth swooned on the rhythm of words, the jangle of phrases, the emotional bullseye that pricks the intellect on it's way to the heart of the matter.
This outstanding effort from an astute Minneapolis singer-songwriter rocks intensely - sweetened by healthy doses of folk and country. Producer Bucky Baxter is well known as Bob Dylan's pedal steel player, and other notable contributors include ex-E Streeter Garry Tallent, as well as sidemen for Bruce Hornsby and Bill Monroe.(Whistling Past the Graveyard)
For fans of Graham Parker or Bruce Springsteen-type singer/songwriters, Paul Metsa's Whistling Past the Graveyard should be of interest. Metsa writes intricate storytelling songs with complex lyrics and rich melodies that would do either of those artists justice, but Metsa is very much his own man.
Paul Metsa sounds like John Cale sometimes and Van Morrison sometimes and occasionally even both though mostly he sounds like himself, like something special. Of course almost every singer/songwriter/folksinger/whatever of the past few generations who grew up after Dylan show that influence overwhelmingly and Metsa's no different but he isn't drowning in it. One song ran its drunken Tom Waits fingers up and down my spine reminding me of a night, a dark night, the music and a women who said no and then just kept saying no across a floor and through a series of rooms until niether of us could stand it anymore. That kind of music. American street poetry.
Metsa has long been at the forefront of the Minneapolis music scene but often has been overshadowed by rock bands such as Soul Asylum and The Replacements...terrific heartland-style folk-rock tunes.
Paul Metsa is a Minneapolis songwriter who doesn't shy away from rocking out, who has a sharp ear for language, and who crafts melodies that express jazzy freedom as well as folk purity.
He may be the most original acoustic-type ax player since - - well...the Guy himself.
Think of Bruce with a Midwestern drawl. Though Springsteen comparisons come cheap these days, Metsa can claim E Streeter Garry Tallent on bass and compelling lyrical portraits of working class life.