Biography
Ryley Walker, a Chicago-based fingerstyle guitarist, vocalist, and composer, has followed an unpredictable artistic trajectory. Early noisy experiments gave way to intricate guitar work and airy, spiritually tinged pop that evoked Bert Jansch, Van Morrison, and the Dave Matthews Band. That affinity for the latter surfaced clearly on his 2018 covers album The Lillywhite Sessions, after which a sequence of bold collaborative projects preceded his return to original solo material with 2021’s Course in Fable.
Having sharpened his skills amid Chicago’s indie and experimental circles, Walker began performing solo acoustic sets that prompted comparisons to William Tyler, Glenn Jones, and British Isles players such as John Renbourn, Davy Graham, and Martin Carthy. He nevertheless remained unpredictable, moving fluidly among blues, folk, pop, and experimental textures.
His first recording, the cassette-only EP The Evidence of Things Unseen, appeared in a limited edition on Plustapes in 2011; its cover deliberately echoed John Fahey’s Death Chants Breakdowns & Military Favorites while nodding to the American Primitive aesthetic of Takoma Records. Later that year Plustapes issued another cassette, Of Deathly Premonitions, a four-song collaboration with fingerstyle guitarist Daniel Bachman. Walker’s first widely available release was the vinyl-only three-song 12" West Wind on Tompkins Square Records in 2013, followed by his debut album All Kinds of You on the same label in April 2014.
After extensive touring and sideman work, he joined Dead Oceans in the fall and recorded Primrose Green in Chicago with improvisational and jazz players including cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz; the 2015 album marked his first use of his own vocals and blended folk, rock, jazz, and new-music elements. Following nearly ten months of touring, Walker returned to Chicago and drew on the city’s influence along with local touchstones Tortoise and Gastr del Sol for the eight-track Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, released in August 2016. That same year saw the limited-vinyl Record Store Day release Cannots, a collaboration with Chicago free-jazz drummer Charles Rumback. In 2017 Walker and frequent partner Bill MacKay issued the guitar-duet collection SpiderBeetleBee on Drag City, described as “slide blues, Baroque dance, percolating Latin, and deep-focus space.”
Walker reappeared in spring 2018 with Deafman Glance, recorded at Minbal (now JAMDEK) Studios and USA Studios in Chicago with co-producer Leroy Bach, who also played guitar and keyboards. Regular associates Brian Sulpizio and MacKay contributed electric guitars, Mikel Avery and Quin Kirchner handled drums, Andrew Scott Young and Matt Lux played bass, Nate Lepine added flute and saxophone, and Cooper Crain, who also recorded and mixed the album, supplied synthesizers. Later that year Walker released The Lillywhite Sessions. A longtime Dave Matthews Band devotee from his teenage years, he revisited the unreleased 2001 album of the same name that the band had recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite; RCA rejected its darker material and the group quickly recorded and issued the poorly received Everyday instead. Several tracks from the shelved sessions later circulated via Napster and were re-recorded for Busted Stuff. Walker’s radically reworked versions function simultaneously as affectionate tribute and expression of his off-kilter humor. In 2019 he and Rumback delivered their second album of moody instrumentals, Little Common Twist. Further collaborations followed: the trio album For Michael Ripps with guitarists J.R. Bohannon and Ben Greenberg appeared at the end of 2020, and the jammy Deep Fried Grandeur with Tokyo psych band Kikagaku Moyo surfaced a couple of months later. The prolific run continued in April 2021 with Course in Fable, Walker’s first proper solo album since Deafman Glance.
Having sharpened his skills amid Chicago’s indie and experimental circles, Walker began performing solo acoustic sets that prompted comparisons to William Tyler, Glenn Jones, and British Isles players such as John Renbourn, Davy Graham, and Martin Carthy. He nevertheless remained unpredictable, moving fluidly among blues, folk, pop, and experimental textures.
His first recording, the cassette-only EP The Evidence of Things Unseen, appeared in a limited edition on Plustapes in 2011; its cover deliberately echoed John Fahey’s Death Chants Breakdowns & Military Favorites while nodding to the American Primitive aesthetic of Takoma Records. Later that year Plustapes issued another cassette, Of Deathly Premonitions, a four-song collaboration with fingerstyle guitarist Daniel Bachman. Walker’s first widely available release was the vinyl-only three-song 12" West Wind on Tompkins Square Records in 2013, followed by his debut album All Kinds of You on the same label in April 2014.
After extensive touring and sideman work, he joined Dead Oceans in the fall and recorded Primrose Green in Chicago with improvisational and jazz players including cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz; the 2015 album marked his first use of his own vocals and blended folk, rock, jazz, and new-music elements. Following nearly ten months of touring, Walker returned to Chicago and drew on the city’s influence along with local touchstones Tortoise and Gastr del Sol for the eight-track Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, released in August 2016. That same year saw the limited-vinyl Record Store Day release Cannots, a collaboration with Chicago free-jazz drummer Charles Rumback. In 2017 Walker and frequent partner Bill MacKay issued the guitar-duet collection SpiderBeetleBee on Drag City, described as “slide blues, Baroque dance, percolating Latin, and deep-focus space.”
Walker reappeared in spring 2018 with Deafman Glance, recorded at Minbal (now JAMDEK) Studios and USA Studios in Chicago with co-producer Leroy Bach, who also played guitar and keyboards. Regular associates Brian Sulpizio and MacKay contributed electric guitars, Mikel Avery and Quin Kirchner handled drums, Andrew Scott Young and Matt Lux played bass, Nate Lepine added flute and saxophone, and Cooper Crain, who also recorded and mixed the album, supplied synthesizers. Later that year Walker released The Lillywhite Sessions. A longtime Dave Matthews Band devotee from his teenage years, he revisited the unreleased 2001 album of the same name that the band had recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite; RCA rejected its darker material and the group quickly recorded and issued the poorly received Everyday instead. Several tracks from the shelved sessions later circulated via Napster and were re-recorded for Busted Stuff. Walker’s radically reworked versions function simultaneously as affectionate tribute and expression of his off-kilter humor. In 2019 he and Rumback delivered their second album of moody instrumentals, Little Common Twist. Further collaborations followed: the trio album For Michael Ripps with guitarists J.R. Bohannon and Ben Greenberg appeared at the end of 2020, and the jammy Deep Fried Grandeur with Tokyo psych band Kikagaku Moyo surfaced a couple of months later. The prolific run continued in April 2021 with Course in Fable, Walker’s first proper solo album since Deafman Glance.
Albums
Little Common Twist
2019
The Lillywhite Sessions
2018
Deafman Glance
2018
SpiderBeetleBee
2017
Golden Sings That Have Been Sung (Deep Cuts Edition)
2016
Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
2016
Cannots
2016
Primrose Green
2015
Singles
