Guitarist
Ryley Walker follows
All Kinds of You, his 2014 debut full-length, by delving deeper into some of the abstract jazz and psych-inflected folk-rock that permeated several of its tracks. On
Primrose Green -- his debut for
Dead Oceans -- he doesn't worry about putting his own signature on his tunes; this record is all about playing music he loves with people he respects. Though these are original songs, their inspirational roots lie in late-'60s and early-'70s sources. He's found a host of willing Chicago collaborators from the worlds of jazz and improv to assist, including cellists
Fred Lonberg-Holm and
Whitney Johnson, vibraphonist
Jason Adasiewicz, drummer
Frank Rosaly, keyboardist
Ben Boye, upright and electric bassist
Anton Hatwich, and electric guitarist
Brian Sulpizio. Less than a minute into the opening title track, one can hear the very spirit of
Tim Buckley -- one of several
Walker muses here -- coming through the ether (or smoke, such as it were, since it is titled for a particular strain of pot). Eastern modes and droning psych are rung out on a 12-string, piano, electric guitars, vibes, and upright bass (the latter recalling
Danny Thompson, who played with
Buckley on the London concert issued as
Dream Letter).
Walker's voice swoops and sails, floats and hovers through his words about getting high. "Summer Dress" moves on (a bit) to widen the circle and embrace
John Martyn's early-'70s sound inside
Buckley's elastic chamber jazz approach.
Sulpizio's guitar and
Adasiewicz's vibes send this one into a darkly grooving stratosphere. "Same Minds" is so silvery and mercurial, one can feel
Martyn's ghost in the mix. The instrumental "Love Can Be Cruel" evokes
Brian Auger's sense of space and motion with wafting electronic noise grounding the tune in the 21st century. Speaking of
Auger, the twilit psych-jazz of "Sweet Satisfaction" recalls the keyboardist's
Trinity band with singer
Julie Driscoll (now
Tippetts), though
Buckley's sense of elongated glossolalia still holds sway over the singer's vocal.
Walker's killer fingerstyle guitar artistry isn't left off this record; it's present to stellar effect on "Griffiths Bucks Blues," "On the Banks of the Old Kishwaukee," "The High Road" (a duet with
Lonberg-Holm), and the closing "Hide in the Roses." The latter track is informed by
Bert Jansch's and
Davy Graham's readings of the British Isles folk tradition. It's these rootsier tunes that add glue to the sensual, stoned, free-spirited cuts to make this a cohesive album. With its ready absorption of, homage to, and engagement with the past,
Walker's skills as a guitarist and arranger make
Primrose Green as musically compelling as it is willfully indulgent. ~ Thom Jurek