Ryley Walker
The Halfwit In Me
Dead Oceans

Ryley Walker released one of the great folk-pop albums of last year with his excellent Primrose Green, and he threw a brilliant gig at Oslo's Mon café during his European tour in February (as a trio, backed with two Norwegian friends: Ståle Solberg on drums/percussion and Julius Lind on double bass). He's been visiting Oslo several times, even also earlier this summer (at the PiP festival, which I didn't attend), and his now touring within the duo format alongside/backed with legendary bass player/multi-instrumentalist Danny Thompson (of Pentangle, plus numerous artists including Nick Drake, Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, Tim Buckley, John Martyn, Richard Thompson, ...). In fact, Thompson has played with most of the artists mentioned as Ryley Walker's musical 'upbringing'.

New song "The Halfwit In Me" is a taster from his new album Golden Sings That Have Been Sung (due out August 19th), and it's another example of Walker's eminent guitar skills along with his song writing talent. "The Halfwit In Me" is a mild breezed, gentle waved song coming at us like a sweet, cooling refreshment on a hot summer's day. The references aren't all from the 'old school' of folk rock. There are some contemporary artist to file Walker along with as well, such as (maybe) Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt. However, "The Halfwit..." is a great track, and I guess the coming record must be a collection of more beautiful, joyous songs from out of Walker's sleeve. Walker is no halfwit at all. However, he is witty for sure, as you can experience if you can catch him live in concert.

Copyright © 2016 Håvard Oppøyen