Plus Tapes

The story of American Primitivism is well documented. We know John Fahey and his Takoma Records. We know Rabbie Basho and his acoustic steel string guitar. We know that early Leo Kottke album with the armadillo on the cover. You may also know the revival of the avant-garde neo-classical country-blues-ragas by the likes of Steffen Basho-Junghans, Sir Richard Bishop, James Blackshaw and the late, great Jack Rose.

To think that a similarly youthful and equally adept guitarist could be strumming here in Chicago seems silly… But give a listen to Ryley Walker’s latest release, The Evidence of Things Unseen, and tell us we’re wrong.

Fahey was 19 when he made his first recordings, Basho too. Kottke was 21, and Rose was 22. Walker is right on track at 21; if recordings like the brooding “Sturgeon Bay Drifter” or more lighthearted “Louisa My Sunshine” are any indication, his future is as secure as the legacies of his predecessors.