(He listened to the audiobook of NOFX’s autobiography during the drive.) And when it came time to release the record, Walker, whose contract with Dead Oceans had run out, chose his own label.
It was demoed in Chicago last June and recorded a year ago in Portland, Walker driving across the country in two days by himself. The start-to-finish Course In Fable must have been similar to what the Empty Bottle set was to Walker and his band: forward, fast-charging, and fun. Tempos change amiably on the skronking “Axis Bent” and jazzy “Clad With Bunk”, Walker letting out a “woo!” on the latter to introduce serious riffing. The wonderfully titled one-take “A Lenticular Slap” jams for a couple minutes before going into its verses and swaying chorus, circular guitar rhythms atop mathy stop-starts. Though it’s rife with the same self-deprecating humor and references to past drug binges as his legendary Twitter account, Course In Fable sports positive vibes, especially in the dynamism of the instrumentation. Working with heavyweights like Tortoise’s John McEntire and string musician Douglas Jenkins (who provided all the string arrangements on the record), Walker’s latest is his most confident record. It was simultaneously the most technically impressive and loosest I’ve ever seen Walker, the same combination that renders Course In Fable his best album to date. And in revisiting his older catalog, Walker went full-on indie jam ( Deafman Glance’s “Opposite Middle”), prog (“Telluride Speed”), and prog-folk ( Golden Sings That Have Been Sung’s “The Halfwit In Me). They brought an immediately fried, buzzy vibe on “Striking Down Your Big Premiere”, Walker and MacKay in tune with their solos, and cooled off with the limber, gentle “Rang Dizzy”. Walker played with a band made up of guitarist Bill Mackay, bassist Andrew Scott Young (two main contributors to April’s Course In Fable, his first LP released on his own label husky pants records), and drummer Quin Kircher. Gone is the overall dark tone that surrounded Deafman Glance and in its place the guitar strums bring enlightenment and exciting anticipation for what is next.Earlier this month, headlining the Empty Bottle’s fall block party, Ryley Walker joked, “How far did they have to go for me to headline?” to a crowd of fans who loved him for his banter just as much as his playing. “Osees weren’t available?” Funny enough, the music ended up just as raucous as those San Francisco psych rockers. Not only is he producing high level output but you can hear the healing on every track. Clearly, we can all celebrate that Walker is still with us. When you add in the excellent guitar work from the talented Bill MacKay, drumming of Ryan Jewell and producer/engineer John McEntire (Tortoise, the Sea and Cake) this record is as technically sound as you could want.Ī new look on life can always be the catalyst for something special. It is a seamless transition in the song that is effortless and confident which sums up most of the album. “Clad With Bunk” is one of my favorite songs as it has such a smooth and polite open but then its last two minutes changes the tempo and rocks out. The opening “Striking Down Your Big Premiere” has so many excellent twists and turns with Walker’s confident vocals steering the song.
He has a couple tracks here that push by the 7 minute mark which give plenty of canvas to work but the 5 minute runtime is his sweet spot for songs on Course In Fable. Course In Fable is a record that successfully takes what has made Walker the artist he is today and uses those experiences to create an album that is one of his best to date. Walker comes off here masterful at his trade as he shows off his guitar skills with song arrangements that are artful, prog like, psychedelic and back to the basics from his earlier years. Walker’s fifth solo album Course In Fable could take us anywhere but now with a new appreciation and look on life this album actually feels like a natural progression right down to the cover art. That is a very eclectic tour especially when you consider that his 2015 album, Primrose Green, was mostly built around a 70’s folk singer/songwriter sound. Musically, he released a cover record of Dave Matthews Band’s The Lillywhite Sessions in 2018, had another instrumental record with jazz musician Charles Rumback in 2019 called Little Common Twist and then released the excellent jam record with Kikagaku Moyo earlier this year in Deep Fried Grandeur.
Ryley Walker has walked an interesting musical path since his last solo release of Deafman Glance in 2018 but more importantly he is celebrating a new beginning of sorts in 2021 with sobriety after a long time of addiction and a suicide attempt in 2019.
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