Days before the release of his newest album ‘Deafman Glance’ due out May 18 on Dead Oceans, Ryley Walker and band will stop into Columbia and if Art Gallery for an intimate performance.
Ryley Walker captures something about Chicago in his music and his guitar playing. In one interview he describes it as “…its more Chicago-y sounding. Chicago sounds like a train constantly coming towards you but never arriving. Thats the sound I hear, all the time, ringing in my ears.” These same emotions of locale are shown and felt in his 2016 video for his song The Roundabout.
Known as much for his skill on guitar as his songwriting, Walker searched for structure on his new album, balancing jamming and improv with song structure. The balance is where Walker thrives, with some of his previously released songs like The Roundabout and Primose Green more teasing the long jams, his albums as a whole can be more of a psychedelic journey. His blend of jazz, rock, and folk blends nicely with his fingerpicking style that at the roots of each are how he makes Americana his own, and something more than that genre label typically entails.