On his previous visits to Brighton, Ryley Walker performed solo, just him and a guitar. For sure, he plays brilliantly, a mixture of the improvisational and the prescribed. But he didn’t always exude, as they say in the world of theatre.

But surrounded by a full band tonight, he certainly did exude. To the point that he may have been a little tipsy, on both the rider and the acclaim. Or maybe he’s really just an ordinary goofball who happens to play with sublime authority. Beginning with an anti-Trump tirade, he looked and sounded like he was having a ball, exchanging banter with the audience, attempting a decent impression of a Mancunian, and marvelling at the almost full house for a November Sunday evening.

Whatever the case, Walker and band (double bass, second guitar, drums and keys) performed a set that was at times exhilarating, at other times blissful. Playing mostly songs from his magnificent, if patchy, Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, he’s largely eschewing the folk-revivalist sounds of his previous works. Primrose Hill was great, but Golden Sings is more original and contemporary sounding, even if there are still obvious old school reference points, Nick Drake, Tim Buckley and John Martyn immediately spring to mind. It’s all the better for it.

This is, first and foremost, a group effort, rather than a vehicle for Walker’s songs, and so he’s toned down the guitar flair throughout, allowing space and textures to commingle, gravitate and elevate, the delicate interplay on the recorded version largely kept intact for the live performance.

While he doesn’t quite possess the eerie splendour or vocal ranges of the aforementioned artists, his voice does act as a soulful instrument in its own right (there’s little chance of hearing much of what he is actually singing live).

Highlights included the long, and languid-yet-ominous ‘Age Old Tale’, underpinned by unfussy double bass and shimmering cymbals as it slowly but surely transfixes and engages in its dark tones. The self-deprecating, yet warm pastoral glow of ‘The Halfwit in Me’ and the gently rolling folksy-rock of ‘The Roundabout’, which features perhaps his finest vocal performance of the night.

“I play acoustic guitar and I’m emotional,” he says at one point. The thing is, he does it better than almost anyone else.
Jeff Hemmings

Website: ryleywalker.com