The album’s first single “Rang Dizzy” is built on the deft guitar interplay between Walker and Bill MacKay, whose past experiences making guitar duo albums together becomes abundantly clear when you hear them twist and turn around each other. Opener “Striking Down Your Big Premiere” flips between proggy flourishes complete with synthesizer and cellos, and wide, laid-back half time grooves, and right away you get a sense of how locked in the group is. The album covers a wide stylistic range, all anchored by Walker’s agile guitar playing and Ryan Jewell’s nimble, propulsive drumming.
The playing on the album is not only extremely tight and cohesive, but also sounds fantastic, beautifully documented by McEntire behind the boards. The marquee name in the credits is engineer/multi-instrumentalist of Tortoise fame John McEntire, lending both of his skill sets to the fold. Walker assembled a dream team band to take on his latest compositions, featuring frequent collaborators and fellow Chicagoans Bill MacKay and Andrew Scott Young on guitar and bass respectively, and his go-to drummer as of late, Ryan Jewell. Walker started his own label last year called Husky Pants Records, on which he’s released his latest solo effort, Course In Fable, a culmination of his influences that feels like a high water mark in his career.Ī promotional image for this album featured Walker holding what looks like a Genesis sticker, a band he’s confirmed his love for on his ever-amusing Twitter account, and the influence of prog is noticeable throughout the album in its twisting instrumental passages that shift on a dime, and his cryptic, knotty lyrics. His most esoteric material has typically been saved for his collaborative work, but his solo records have been growing more dense and complex over the years. With a decade of releases on multiple labels under his belt now, he’s covered everything from hushed acoustic instrumentals to spacious psych-rock escapades, with even a Dave Matthews Band cover album in the mix. Records, tapes, and CDs of highly skilled picking and strumming abound these days, especially in the eastern half of the US, and one player who’s no stranger to this scene is the Brooklyn-via-Chicago guitarist Ryley Walker.
Multiple releases spanning multiple genres on Dead Oceans, Thrill Jockey, Drag City, American Tapes, and his own imprint-husky pants records.I believe we’re currently in a golden era for underground guitar music. Ryley Walker is a guitarist and songwriter based in New York City.
His most recent book is The Voice in the Headphones (Duke University Press, 2020). Spencer Yeh, and Asha Shehadri, with whom we shared a bill on this lovely evening.ĭavid Grubbs was a member of the groups Gastr del Sol, Bastro, and Squirrel Bait, and has performed with the Red Krayola, Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, Susan Howe, Will Oldham, and many others. Recorded by Jack Callahan at The Windjammer, Ridgewood, Queens, June 29, 2019. This live recording from a broiling night at a neighborhood bar in Ridgewood, Queens documents their first duo performance. After digging one another’s recordings for some time, they started playing together-duo, quartet, whatever you got-in 2019. Grubbs and Walker are both guitar-playing former Chicagoans who’ve recorded for the Drag City label and currently live in New York.
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