Ryley Walker

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Ryley Walker began his career in the early 2010s, after moving from Illinois’ provincial town of Rockford, and settling into Chicago’s independent scene. After a slew of cassette and vinyl releases, Tompkins Square put out his debut album in 2014, which was then followed up by the Dead Oceans released ‘Primrose Green’ a year later. Working alongside several of Chicago’s distinguished experimental and jazz musicians, including cellist Fred Longberg-Holm, Walker has almost always left room for improvisation in his music, typically building from a central groove and then mutating and expanding outwards, until the song resembles something like a convulsive octopus.

For the past decade, his output has been prolific. In 2015, Walker released an instrumental album, recorded in collaboration with fellow Chicago musician Bill MacKay, entitled ‘Land of Plenty’. Following the release of his fourth solo album, ‘Golden Sings That Have Been Sung’, in 2016, the duo’s second album, ‘Spiderbeetlebee’, was released by Drag City in 2017. Around the same time, he teamed up with free-jazz drummer Charles Rumback, the result was 2016’s ‘Cannots’, released by Dead Oceans in 2016, and later, ‘Little Common Twist’, released by Thrill Jockey in November, 2019—which followed 2018’s ‘The Lillywhite Sessions’, an album of covers of Walker’s beloved Dave Matthews Band. In 2021, he released ‘Deep Fried Grandeur’, a live album in collaboration with Japanese psychedelic band Kikagayu Moyo, just before releasing his sixth and most critically acclaimed solo album to date, ‘Course In Fable’. Most recently, in September 2021, he released ‘A Tap On The Shoulder’ alongside frequent collaborator and Squirrel Bait founder David Grubbs.

Now at thirty-two, and with twenty years of musical experience behind him, Walker’s ethos is simple, unembellished and somewhat blue-collar: He plays rock music because he enjoys it; he plays rock music because it’s a way to avoid manual labour; he plays rock music because he’s good at it.

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