Guilty Archives - chimesfreedom

The first day of May reminds me of one of my favorite albums, Matthew Ryan’s May Day from 1997. Ryan — who grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania and later moved to Tennessee — has recorded more than ten albums with his gravely voice and unique music. As explained on his website, “His songs tend to be about girls, socio-political issues, people on the edges, breakups, brotherhood, hate, love, fighters and hope. Sometimes all in the same song. He prefers to think of them as songs for humans.”

If I think of albums with great opening tracks, one of the first ones I think of is May Day, with its powerful rocking opener, “Guilty.” I love the guitars, the drums, the voice, and the lyrics.

‘Cause lately I’ve been dreaming of angels and cranes,
In some kind of purgatory dodging the CIA,
With a head full of soot, waving black flags,
Throwing off the bodies just to cut down on the drag;
Take ’em to the desert or take ’em to a dried up well;
Tell ’em they’re in heaven and mutter, “welcome to hell;”
I’ve been guilty of all these things.

Matthew Ryan has recorded several excellent albums, but has yet to become the big star that he should be. I prefer the rocking sound in some of his earlier work to the softer songs that predominate several of his albums. As a recent USA Today review noted in a positive review of his album Dear Lover, “Some rockers must scream when they plumb emotions at this depth. Ryan rarely has to raise his voice above a raspy whisper.”

But I like it when he raises his voice, as he does on the outstanding 2014 album Boxers. And for me, he may never surpass the opening song “Guilty” on his debut album, although he has come close. But that is not a bad thing, because very few artists have set such a high threshold with their first song.

Ryan also recorded an excellent acoustic version of the song in 2010.