BILL MACKAY / RYLEY WALKER - Land Of Plenty

Drag City is pleased to announce the
reissue of hypnotic syncretic guitar duo
Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker's recorded
debut, Land of Plenty. And just in time
for the 10th anniversary of the original
release! Not that it matters to us, but this
is HISTORY in the remaking here, people!
As well as some right stimulating music
for you pure listeners out there-and
some of the rest of you, too.
Now, who remembers where they were
in January 2015? Bill and Ryley don't
need to, they've got Land of Plenty to
remind 'em. That's when they made the
record, but a scant year before, can you
believe it-they barely knew each other!
Once they met, though, they hit it off
over mutual influences, like Albert King,
Laura Nyro, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch,
Ali Akbar Khan and Jimi Hendrix. Most
of those folks are guitarists, just like Bill
and Ryley. But Laura Nyro played piano
and Ali Akbar Khan, sarod. Now maybe
in your duo, one picker radiates that kind
of diversity-but both? This was the first clue as to how heavy it might be if
these two lads pooled their talents. They got to work. And play.
A year later, they were loaded into The Whistler every single Friday night
on the calendar in January 2015. A residency, so called, but these resident
players had designed not simply to entertain each night, but also to record
the pool of material they'd woodshedded together in the recent months. Yeah!
Bill and Ryley dared to dream, man. A record, of all new originals, recorded
live. Then when they went back to review the tapes, they were reliving the
dream! They'd achieved that finest of things, rendering their all-new material
in ultimate form, live and in person.
Listening today, we'd hardly believe it, if it weren't something we'd just typed
above! While the two of them are generally divided up by speakers, which
is a groovy old-school way to have stereo sound that we LOVE, their shared
headspace is a constant flow of ever-melding play, ranging across all sorts
of genres and geographies from east to west and folding them immaculately
into each other, whether in moments of transition or extended meditation.
Listening out for each other as they're picking, these boys dance together and
never land a foot wrong. They are ON. Whether head to head with six-strings
or with Bill picking up his Requinto, or Ryley picking up his 12-string, these
performances sound RICH. The live capture seems to enhance the sound in all
sorts of unpredictable ways that activates with the chemistry in their playing,
and ultimately serves to elevate Land of Plenty in its field! There's very few
acoustic guitar records that hit quite like this.
It was in August of 2015 that Land of Plenty was released, on Whistler Records.
Ten damn years ago. Damn it! Time goes by and things change... it's just
crazy. But if crazy means we get to push out our own copy of this gorgeous
Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker duo recital, then call us crazy. Please. Cause
that's what we're only too happy to do. Plus, let's get 'em back in the clubs
and get another one of these together! Lightning's been known to strike twice!

Vinyl release of Bill Mackay / Ryley Walker - Land Of Plenty. Released through DRAG CITY and available on LP.