Locust Land

by Bill MacKay

Overview

Chicago-based guitarist Bill MacKay has built a catalog embodying several genres and few boundaries. The self-released works flirted with improvising on folk-pop instrumentals, teasing vanguard electric jazz, blues, and Americana (evidenced by the Sounds of Now, Broken Things' Swim to the River, and three Darts & Arrows recordings). He's issued three wonderfully idiosyncratic, solo albums -- Chatham Park, Esker, and Fountain Fire -- and three more with guitarist and vocalist Ryley Walker. There are two experimental dates, Stir with cellist Katinka Kleijn, and Keys with multi-instrumentalist Nathan Bowles; a solo outing of John Hulburt tunes; Black Duck with Doug McCombs and Charles Rumback; and Foreign Smokes with Bitchin' Bajas' Cooper Crain. This brings us to Locust Land, MacKay's fourth Drag City outing. While it settles comfortably between Esker and Fountain Fire, it offers a distinct musical profile. MacKay is assisted selectively by drummer/vocalist Mikel Patrick Avery, vocalist Janet Beveridge Bean, and bassist Sam Wagster. This is the first time that, other than an upright piano, MacKay has woven his electronic keyboards into a session. Locust Land contains nine songs spread over 30 minutes. MacKay delivers a seductive weave of dreamy soundscapes and instrumental textures, lyrical songwriting, guitar improv, and organic production. Opener "Phantasmic Fairy" offers fingerpicked electric guitars wrapped in reverb, piano, backmasked production, and whispering keyboards that float and hover for just under two minutes. It's answered by "Keeping in Time," a plaintive vocal number with acoustic guitars and distorted electrics balanced by a lyric and melody that recalls, strangely, Savoy Brown's "Train to Nowhere." "Half of You" is introduced by a strummed acoustic guitar and adorned by serpentine electric guitar fills and vocals. Single "Glow Drift," with Avery and Wagster, is a rocking instrumental that crosses surf, the Velvets, and Southern California psychedelia with dirty guitars, Farfisa organ, drums, and a throbbing bassline. "Oh Pearl" offers a cut-time country music cadence delivered by mandolins, droning electric, slide-strummed acoustic guitars, and wafting keys. "Radiator" is instrumental psychedelic rock, driven by filthy electric guitars and an organ playing the progression chords. It sounds like Crazy Horse with Can's Michael Karoli on lead guitar. MacKay's fills are biting, bluesy, and economical. "When I Was Here" is another rocker, this time with vocals and autobiographical lyrics that amount to a mission statement. Avery and Bean provide multi-part wordless vocals arranged in neo-classical rounds on "Neil's Field," wafting atop a droning organ, acoustic guitars, and drenched in reverb. It segues into the closing title cut, a modal acoustic guitar tune with multiple layers of six-strings and gorgeous electric lead and slide fills; it's a loose, wonderfully tangled, melodic jam that recalls, in spirit, David Crosby's "Music Is Love." Locust Land is arguably the finest of MacKay's solo albums because it is so self-contained. It reflects his musical history in the present, while providing canny hints about what the future may hold. ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	05/24/2024
Label:	Drag City
UPC:	0781484087618
Rank:	76110

Tracks

1. Phantasmic Fairy
2. Keeping in Time
3. Glow Drift
4. Half of You
5. Oh Pearl
6. Radiator
7. When I Was Here
8. Neil's Field
9. Locust Land

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Bill MacKay   Primary Artist