An integral part of the alternative Chicago music scene, Ryley Walker has been making some serious waves with his fluidly elegant progressive and experimental folk-acoustica that contains hints of jazz and is influenced by the likes of Tim Buckley, Nick Drake and John Martyn; as well as many players from around the Chicago area, a place that has been wholly inspirational for him and this album.

Prolific, he's already released two studio albums and one live album since his 2014 début All Kinds of You. And now he is about to unleash another record, the outstanding Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, a collection of songs either written and developed while on the road last year, or in the studio, and featuring largely the same band that appeared on his previous studio album, Primrose Green. Including guitarist Brian Sulpizio, double bassist Anton Hatwich as well as Quin Kirchner, Ryn Jewell and Wilco's LeRoy Bach, who produced the album, and someone who Walker had long watched and admired in and around the improv Chicago scene.

Indeed, Walker would sometimes go to Bach's house, armed with just a fragment or a riff, and from there they would develop the idea into a song, such as on opening track ‘The Halfwit In Me’. The idea developing into the self-admonishing, yet languidly sun-kissed sophistication that features clarinet, intricate jazzy drums, mellow double bass, tasteful keyboard fills and chords, with dual guitars intermingling and gently setting each other off into Nick Drakesque pastoralism.

Rumbling drums, a walking bassline and distorted keys underpin ‘A Choir Apart’, before it periodically breaks out into electric guitar-led bursts of organised noise; while the uber-zonked out Shipbuilding-style bass grooves and almost imperceptible brush strokes of ‘Funny Thing She Said’ is topped off by a terrifically soulful vocal from Walker, decorous guitar and piano flourishes, before culminating on rippling waves of cello and violin. Sounding live and raw, it's a study of separation and what-ifs.

Meanwhile, the arabic guitar tones impart a dark hue to ‘Sullen Mind’, a song that also originally sprang from a riff, played to guitar foil Brian Sulpizo on stage, over which Walker sang the line, “I only have a Christian education” over and over again, before the song developed from these early improvisations into an angst-ridden progressive jazz-rock fusion affair and the folksy ‘The Roundabout’. The closest Walker comes here to sounding like Tim Buckley (although he cannot bear this obvious comparison) is but another pastoral, rolling tune, that opens out for the intermittent bridges. A song about a typical midwestern bar that he would visit with his parents, and the life within, it's interspersed with his rambling thoughts on his life. Not particularly lyrically enriching, there's a certain random poetry to much of his work, but at the same time it's homely, down-to-earth stuff that doesn't try too hard.

When Walker wants to he can really simplify things, going pretty much solo for the short and sweet finger-picked ‘I Will Ask You Twice’, a love song of sorts, with Walker thinking about marriage with a loved one: "Played footsie with Jesus, man what if we touch / I don't read the Bible baby, I think it says don't ask much".

Final track ‘Age Old Tale’ is the clincher, a long and ultra-languid slo-mo epic underpinned by unified deep bass and guitar notes, shimmering cymbals, a steady beat and metronomic harp flourishes. It's transfixing, ominous stuff that invites you to drink in its luxurious tones.

While Primrose Green was the album that really caught the attention of critics and music lovers alike, Golden Sings That Have Been Sung (which according to Walker is "a funny way to say 'good times'") is set to catapult him further into the collective consciousness, thanks to its languidly sophisticated grooves, pleasing melodies, brilliant musicianship that does not know the meaning of flashy, and richly melancholic glow. Asked what he thinks of the new record, Waker says, "It's a much better version of myself." Yep, the best version yet.
Jeff Hemmings

Website: ryleywalker.com
Facebook: facebook.com/ryleywalkerjams
Twitter: twitter.com/ryleywalker