Friday, November 24, 9 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
Performing in support of their October 20 release SpiderBeetleBee, the alt-folk guitar duo of Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker will play a November 24 concert at Rozz-Tox, and consequently demonstrate why Paste magazine raved, “Walker and MacKay do nothing less than dazzle with interlocking melodies and modes that can carry your spirit away or stir up long-dormant memories.”
Described by Uncanned Music as “a critical fixture in Chicago's folk/experimental community,” MacKay grew up in Pittsburgh, moved to the Windy City in 1998, and has been recording and releasing albums since 2004. In addition to successful collaborations with Wilco's LeRoy Beach, Cairo Gang's Sam Wagster, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Katinka Kleijn, the singer/songwriter and guitarist was a composer-in-residence for Lake Forest, Illinois' Ragdale Foundation and an Individual Artist Grant recipient by the Illinois Arts Council. MacKay's recent records have included his 2017 solo album Esker – praised by The Quietus for its “graceful sense of harmonic control and balance” – and 2015's Altamira, the latter recorded with his band Darts & Arrows.
A native of Rockford, Illinois, Walker moved to Chicago in the early 2010s and shared his blues/rock stylings in two 2011 EPs: The Evidence of Things Unseen and, with guitarist Daniel Bachman, Of Deathly Premonitions. His 2014 album debut All Kinds of You, praised by AllMusic.com for Walker's “idiosyncratic compositional method and stunning – yet emotionally resonant – playing technique,” led to 2015's equally acclaimed Primrose Green, and according to ConsequenceOfSound.net, the album found its creator “breathing life back into '60s until it bursts with springtime charm.”
In 2015, MacKay and Walker released their first combined instrumental album Land of Plenty, which was recorded live during a January 2015 residency at The Whistler in Chicago. The fingerstyle ballads, psychedelic waltzes, and raga-inspired blues that resulted inspired Shindig magazine to call the album “tasteful, fluid, and inspired,” and its artists “two musicians at the top of their game.”
Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker perform locally with opening sets by Sun Shrine and Gabriel Dowie, tickets are $10, and more information is available by calling (309)200-0978 or visiting RozzTox.com.
