His current progressive-rock obsessions, among them Genesis and Gentle Giant, have already illustrated how to throw in everything but the kitchen sink, and here Walker channels all his past influences into a singular voice. To the ears of this longtime fan, Course in Fable is the album Walker has been leading up to his whole life. With 2016’s Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, Walker shared his love of the dry, angular pop abstraction practiced in the 90s by the likes of Gastr del Sol and Tortoise, and for the new Course in Fable he enlisted Tortoise’s John McEntire to engineer, mix, and produce. On his 2015 solo full-length Primrose Green, a fuller, more autumnal aesthetic entered the picture, familiar to fans of UK acts such as Pentangle and Accolade (and even Van “Grumpy Old COVID Denier” Morrison) that combined elements of prog, folk, and jazz. The Rockford native shredded in a noisy fashion as a youth, playing in free-jazzin’ bands Heat Death and Tiger Hatchery, but about a decade ago Walker seemed to undergo a seismic shift: he traded in dissonance a la jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock for the mellow sound of troubled singer-songwriters such as the Tims Hardin and Buckley. When guitar wunderkind Ryley Walker releases his first album of proper songs in a couple of years, this new glimpse at where he’s headed in his music is cause to rejoice. ![]() ![]() Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreation.Best of Chicago 2022: Music & Nightlife.
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