![\"image\"](\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/image2.jpg\")
<\/a>The autumnal rain that precedes Ryley Walker\u2019s set is apt tonight. There’s a joyful, freeing feel to his latest work mixed with a creeping sense of foreboding dark clouds across the horizon. His music is a perfect gumbo of West Coast sun dappled psych-folk mixed with free jazz inflections and a lyrical content that, not unlike the Soho Folk boom of the mid-late \u201960s aims to reflect the conflicting nature of everyday life.<\/p>\nHowever, don’t be mistaken in thinking it\u2019s simply a re-enactment of a long lost vibe. In the live context, Walker\u2019s compositions are a platform for things to go well beyond the confines of any Nick Drakeisms that plague a musician who utilises the fingerpicking acoustic guitar style as their primary weapon. His original material has been growing in stature amongst those in the know, and there\u2019s an anticipation to see how the songs have evolved during the touring process.<\/p>\n
A notorious vinyl fanatic \u2014 for proof, see his involvement in the recently reissued primitive guitar gem on Tompkins Square; John Hulbert\u2019s Opus III<\/i> \u2013 at 26, Walker has grown up during the emergence of a truly creative period in US-independent guitar-based music. He is continually discovering (via John Fahey and Sonny Sharrock, amongst others) the sources and more extreme ends of what his instrument can do and emphatically displays his capabilities during a spellbinding set.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the difficulty to date has been that what he does live hasn\u2019t quite come across in the recorded work of his initial two long players but, judging by set-opener \u2018Sullen Mind\u2019 which draws the crowd into silence, it feels like it\u2019s only a matter of time before it will. Taking the bold move of playing this new song to open with shows the sense of fearlessness he has. \u2018On The Banks Of The Old Kishwaukee\u2019 follows; along with the title track of his second LP, \u2018Primrose Green\u2019. However, tonight they\u2019re transmogrified into paeans that transcend the original recordings by a country mile. The former feels like it starts a little further up the river, evoking the sights and sounds of the Mississippi to a small, packed room on the other side of the world, whilst the latter (\u201cWe\u2019re playing the hits tonight!\u201d he jokes) takes a sideways lurch into a shuffling old school, almost Doors-like groove for several minutes before the introductory riff is played and becomes recognisable from the record\u2019s languorous take.<\/p>\n
There are no slouches in his band either; Brian J Sulpizio\u2019s melodious yet fierce guitar work complements the more ferocious elements of Walker\u2019s frenzied strumming throughout, whilst also equally able to provide a lilting tone to \u2018Primrose Green\u2019. The sound is anchored by Anton Hatwich\u2019s Double Bass and St\u00e5le Liavik Solberg\u2019s drums, providing dexterous fingerwork and shimmering cymbal action respectively on another as yet unreleased song, \u2018Funny Thing She Said\u2019. Keyboardist Ben Boye, who has been Walker\u2019s foil in the musical direction for many of the set\u2019s wilder moments, draws out unearthly sounds in the song\u2019s beginning, even going so far as to use a set of house keys on the keys(!) which gives an ethereal quality to the proceedings.<\/p>\n
Despite it being early days, Walker is already being heralded in some circles for taking on the mantle of psych-folk. But, it\u2019s not where he’s at, it’s where he will take it that makes him so thrilling. It\u2019s also telling that only one song (\u2018Clear The Sky\u2019) is played from his 18-month old debut, All Kinds Of You<\/i>. The sound Walker is developing continues to captivate. With a voice that veers between mellifluous and delicate \u2013 as displayed during a beatific solo spot covering Tim Hardin\u2019s \u2018If I Were A Carpenter\u2019 and John Martyn\u2019s take on \u2018Cocain\u2019 \u2013 to the guttural, primal howls and yelps on \u2018Summer Dress\u2019, his intensity is mesmerising, whilst the band can only do their damnedest to keep the train on the track. No matter how seemingly reckless it gets, the beauty of it all is that Walker doesn’t know any more than the lucky few who attended this event, what\u2019s going to happen next.<\/p>\n
Bowing out with a sublime, gossamer-light cover of Van Morrison\u2019s \u2018Fair Play\u2019, there\u2019s no doubting the crowd\u2019s rapt appreciation, having witnessed a near flawless set of old, new and borrowed tunes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s great to see him at this emerging stage of his career. Watch Ryley Walker go \u2013 it\u2019s going to be a gloriously bumpy ride!<\/p>\n
\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bM Le Breton<\/b><\/p>\n US Jazz\/folk young gun stuns London crowd Hoxton Bar & Grill,\u00a0 02\/09\/15 The autumnal rain that precedes Ryley Walker\u2019s set is apt tonight. There’s a joyful, freeing feel to his latest work mixed with a creeping sense of foreboding dark clouds across the horizon. His music is a perfect gumbo of West Coast sun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-ryley-walker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":-1,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"