Ryley Walker is a 24 year-old singer / songwriter and guitarist from
Chicago. I must confess I knew nothing about him until a few days ago when I chanced upon his excellent new debut album
All Kinds Of You.
Walker has a background in Chicago’s experimental free/noise music scene but recently took his music off in a more folk-oriented direction inspired by
60s folk troubadours like
Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley and
Bert Jansch.
With an extremely impressive guitar picking style and a voice that does indeed recall
Bert Jansch, the album is of a consistently high quality. All the songs were composed by Walker and he draws on a variety of musical styles including
blues, jazz and especially the
mid/late 60s crossover
folk jazz of
Jansch, Davy Graham, Pentangle, John Martyn and
Nick Drake.
The West Wind
The album opener
,The West Wind, has a gorgeous arrangement and one can hear Walker's jazz background in the lengthy instrumental coda.
The album has a number of remarkable highlights.
Blessings also features viola and has some of the fragility of
Nick Drake's work.
Clear The Sky is a similarly outstanding ballad. I really like the album's use of viola (played by Whitney Johnson). It works well and adds a very ethereal "British folk" atmosphere, sometimes reminiscent of early
Third Ear Band, to many of the songs. Instrumental
Fonda
recalls
Davy Graham and the album closer
Tanglewood Spaces features some really exquisite guitar playing. The album covers a lot of musical ground ranging from the atmospherically autumnal late
60s British folk sound to the wide open
blues and
jazz spaces of 20th century
Americana.
Twin Oaks Pt. 1 displays Walker's impressive guitar style.
Since first hearing the album last week I haven't been listening to much else. This is an album which clearly returns to the source of classic mid 60s
folk but breathes new life and reinvigorates it for a 21st Century audience.
Walker has talent and is a spectacular guitarist. This album promises much for the future. He will be worth watching.
Ryley Walker - "All Kinds Of You" (Tompkins Square - April 2014)
1. The West Wind
2. Blessings
3. Twin Oaks Pt. 1
4. Great River Road
5. Clear The Sky
6. Twin Oaks Pt. 2
7. Fonda
8. On The Rise
9. Tanglewood Spaces
Stream the album and read
Ryley Walker's own sleeve-notes here
http://www.self-titledmag.com/2014/04/08/stream-ryley-walkers-all-kinds-of-you-album-and-read-his-commentary/
Untitled
While I was looking for more info on
Ryley I came across this song on Soundcloud apparently recorded a couple of years ago. Here we find
Ryley in
psychedelic folk mode sounding like early
Tim Buckley. The droning quality of the guitars and the eerie atmosphere also bring
Nico to mind. Impressive. This could be a taste of future musical developments as a recent session on World Cafe also showed a notable
Tim Buckley and
John Martyn influence
(listen here).
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