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LP
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DC 943LP
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"Drag City presents 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! 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, 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. 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. A record, of all new originals, recorded live. Then when they went back to review the tapes, they were reliving the dream! While the two of them are generally divided up by speakers, which is a groovy old-school way to have stereo sound, 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. 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!"
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LP
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DC 688LP
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2024 repress. Originally released in 2017. "Drag City presents the second volume of Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker's inspired collaboration. Following their much-admired 2015 debut, Land of Plenty (Whistler Records), SpiderBeetleBee more than makes up for lost time with rich, resonant performances that elevate the sound of the guitar duo as they work with an ever-widening panorama of styles. Their first album was developed over a month-long live residency at Chicago bar The Whistler, and reflected MacKay and Walker's shared joy in a new relationship with a kindred spirit, in playing that might wordlessly finish a phrase or suggest a direction, as they spoke through their guitars. SpiderBeetleBee continues fluidly down the path of their initial psych-folk-blues-raga tandem, brewing further explorations in mixed-and-matched idioms, turning composed melodies inside-out via improvisation, and finding in the blend a shared Walker/MacKay pasture, serendipitously found somewhere between Appalachia and the Highlands. SpiderBeetleBee radiates forth with equal parts austerity and whimsy, opening with an almost-baroque dance before giving way to a Celtic theme, both featuring MacKay and Walker's acoustics in rambling conversation, picking through intricate passages as though they were exchanges, thoughts and afterthoughts. The second of these, 'Pretty Weeds Revisited' is enhanced by sonorous statements from Dutch cellist Katinka Kleijn (a veteran of the CSO), showing a deep, instinctive feel for the Walker/MacKay sound. The album then takes an unexpected turn at midpoint, slowly melting down and drifting soulfully through the expansive space of 'Naturita.' Side two picks up the tempo on 'I Heard Them Singing,' with the aid of MacKay's requinto (a kind of five-string Mexican guitar), Walker's rolling chords and the percolating tabla of Ryan Jewell, suggesting a hitherto unknown short-cut from Brazil to India. Drafts of slide guitar and bittersweet blues evocation illumine further fruitful travels before 'Dragonfly,' also featuring Ms. Kleijn's haunting cello, closes the cycle with a flourish. Adorned with Bill MacKay's colorful and wilfully primitive cover-art, SpiderBeetleBee wanders through styles, landmasses and hemispheres, capturing the further adventures of MacKay and Walker with spellbinding snapshots that only bloom larger the longer you take them in."
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