Impossible Truth
William Tyler has worked with Lambchop, Bonnie \"Prince\" Billy, and Silver Jews, and his 2013 solo album *Impossible Truth* was released by the notable indie rock label Merge Records. Still, his own music has little to do with those associations. His majestic guitar work belongs alongside Leo Kottke and Glenn Branca, such are the wonders of Tyler\'s playing. Recorded and mixed at Beech House in Nashville and co-produced by Tyler and Mark Nevers, *Impossible Truth* was inspired by two books Tyler read while on tour: Barney Hoskyns\' *Hotel California* (about the \'70s Laurel Canyon music scene in Los Angeles) and Mike Davis\' *The Ecology of Fear* (which discusses the history of the destruction of L.A., both real and imagined). The 10-minute \"The World Set Free\" deals in feedback and apocalypse, while \"Country of Illusion\" weaves a nine-minute mystery that approaches raga. \"The Geography of Nowhere\" yanks on a mean electric blues guitar. \"We Can\'t Go Home Again\" and \"A Portrait of Sarah\" yield acoustic revelations.
The Nashville-based William Tyler's second album for solo guitar in three years offers a lovely, rangy meditation on open-string drones, though Tyler has an uncommon way of making tangles of picked notes ring out like the melody of a searching pop song.
A towering talent, not just as a guitarist, but as great American storyteller.
On 2010's Behold the Spirit, guitarist William Tyler created a mysterious six- and twelve-string universe peppered with inventive harmonic and stylistic techniques and odd ambient sounds.
Guitarist/composer Tyler earned blog love for his first solo album, Behold The Spirit. This, his first recording for hip label Merge, will l...