Course In Fable
Baroque flourishes, fingerpicking arrangements, complex instrumental parts: These are some of the elements that characterize Ryley Walker’s crafty songwriting on *Course in Fable*, his fifth solo album. For an artist who’s regularly summoned the spirit of \'70s British folk rock while peppering in just a dash of rootsy flair—from 2015’s *Primrose Green* to his Dave Matthews Band covers album *The Lillywhite Sessions*—Walker builds on these foundations as he pushes further into improvisational jazz and prog rock. The native Illinois musician enlisted some of the major players in Chicago\'s experimental music scene to flesh out his vision, embracing virtuosic guitar tapping (“Clad With Bunk”), dub-tinged grooves (“Pond Scum Ocean”), and rough-edged jamming (“Rang Dizzy”) to bring his high-flying sound to life. And even if his city-dwelling observations are just as free-flowing, they capture the everyday essence of going on aimless strolls past nail salons and fluorescent-lit corner stores: “If only I gave to charity more often/The city streets would have a spit shine that is glowing.”
The singer and guitarist takes a new, rangy, proggy direction with an artful touch, finding some psychedelic wisdom between the profound and the mundane.
With the beautifully complex Course In Fable, Ryley Walker finds his unique voice
The Illinois artist veers from prog to post-rock with a fair few stops in between on his latest record
Since his last proper solo release in 2018, Ryley Walker has certainly maintained his sense of adventure, remaking a lost Dave Matthews Band album, releasing his second instrumental collaboration with drummer Charles Rumback, and getting deep into the weeds with Japanese psych combo Kikagaku Moyo.
The pitch for Ryley Walker’s Course in Fable is unusual and slightly befuddling: A Chicago-bred, New York-based troubadour channels his ambitious heroes and shoots to craft swirling progressive arrangements that go beyond the obvious. Though it occasionally misses this lofty mark, it works well enough.
Ryley Walker has always been a contradictory soul. With his nimble Jansch-esque finger-picking he slots neatly into that acid folk realm, while never
Ryley Walker has real talent. Which is why Course In Fable is so frustrating – a bumbling mess, albeit one full of great guitar playing
The musically aware singer-songwriter at his most assured, most direct. Review by Kieron Tyler