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CD
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THRILL 642CD
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"Barry Walker Jr. is a pedal steel player and guitarist whose roots in Americana, country and folk traditions influence his melding of minimalism, ambient and spiritual music. The Portland-based instrumentalist is also a member of the Rose City Band, known for his gorgeous phrasing and deft interplay with guitarist Ripley Johnson. On Paleo Sol, Walker demonstrates his singular voice as a pedal steel player and composer. Evoking the American western ranges and basins, the album embodies a longer, geologic view of time that patiently marvels at the ripples of change throughout lifetimes and ages. Walker is joined on Paleo Sol by drummer Rob Smith (Rhytion, Pigeons) and bassist and Mouth Painter bandmate Jason Willmon (Fruited Planes). Paleo Sol's tranquil landscapes glide, built on warm finger-picked guitar figures and pedal steel swells coupled with deft percussion and bass touches by Smith and Willmon respectively. The trio plays with exceptional fluidity either completing each other's' phrasing or working together to build momentum. Smith notes: 'The drums are not keeping time as much as evidencing its elasticity, mixing into the other instruments, changing phase states.' Every gesture on the album is rich with intention, moving with grace and playing with timbre and time. The pieces of Paleo Sol were composed during a monumental shift in Walker's own life, around the birth of his first child. Walker's compositions are guided by a serenity and gentleness that makes for a dreamy soundtrack. His acumen as a composer and instrumentalist are on full display on Paleo Sol. The album is a gorgeous reflection of Walker's own internal world as well as the detailed environment he's spent so much of his life exploring as a field geologist.
"In human reckoning, the essence of the solid earth is mostly still. Those engaged in deep time inquiry recognize the vigor of Earth's behavior, and quiescence is a small part of the action." --Barry Walker
"This is drift music, sustained by dusky drones and quiet fingerstyle. Everything's as gentle as a sunkissed stream. The pathways that once felt free and clear now sport an uneasy shade, yet the guitar picks on." --NPR Music
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LP
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THRILL 642LP
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LP version. "Barry Walker Jr. is a pedal steel player and guitarist whose roots in Americana, country and folk traditions influence his melding of minimalism, ambient and spiritual music. The Portland-based instrumentalist is also a member of the Rose City Band, known for his gorgeous phrasing and deft interplay with guitarist Ripley Johnson. On Paleo Sol, Walker demonstrates his singular voice as a pedal steel player and composer. Evoking the American western ranges and basins, the album embodies a longer, geologic view of time that patiently marvels at the ripples of change throughout lifetimes and ages. Walker is joined on Paleo Sol by drummer Rob Smith (Rhytion, Pigeons) and bassist and Mouth Painter bandmate Jason Willmon (Fruited Planes). Paleo Sol's tranquil landscapes glide, built on warm finger-picked guitar figures and pedal steel swells coupled with deft percussion and bass touches by Smith and Willmon respectively. The trio plays with exceptional fluidity either completing each other's' phrasing or working together to build momentum. Smith notes: 'The drums are not keeping time as much as evidencing its elasticity, mixing into the other instruments, changing phase states.' Every gesture on the album is rich with intention, moving with grace and playing with timbre and time. The pieces of Paleo Sol were composed during a monumental shift in Walker's own life, around the birth of his first child. Walker's compositions are guided by a serenity and gentleness that makes for a dreamy soundtrack. His acumen as a composer and instrumentalist are on full display on Paleo Sol. The album is a gorgeous reflection of Walker's own internal world as well as the detailed environment he's spent so much of his life exploring as a field geologist.
"In human reckoning, the essence of the solid earth is mostly still. Those engaged in deep time inquiry recognize the vigor of Earth's behavior, and quiescence is a small part of the action." --Barry Walker
"This is drift music, sustained by dusky drones and quiet fingerstyle. Everything's as gentle as a sunkissed stream. The pathways that once felt free and clear now sport an uneasy shade, yet the guitar picks on." --NPR Music
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THRILL 642X-LP
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LP version. Red color vinyl. "Barry Walker Jr. is a pedal steel player and guitarist whose roots in Americana, country and folk traditions influence his melding of minimalism, ambient and spiritual music. The Portland-based instrumentalist is also a member of the Rose City Band, known for his gorgeous phrasing and deft interplay with guitarist Ripley Johnson. On Paleo Sol, Walker demonstrates his singular voice as a pedal steel player and composer. Evoking the American western ranges and basins, the album embodies a longer, geologic view of time that patiently marvels at the ripples of change throughout lifetimes and ages. Walker is joined on Paleo Sol by drummer Rob Smith (Rhytion, Pigeons) and bassist and Mouth Painter bandmate Jason Willmon (Fruited Planes). Paleo Sol's tranquil landscapes glide, built on warm finger-picked guitar figures and pedal steel swells coupled with deft percussion and bass touches by Smith and Willmon respectively. The trio plays with exceptional fluidity either completing each other's' phrasing or working together to build momentum. Smith notes: 'The drums are not keeping time as much as evidencing its elasticity, mixing into the other instruments, changing phase states.' Every gesture on the album is rich with intention, moving with grace and playing with timbre and time. The pieces of Paleo Sol were composed during a monumental shift in Walker's own life, around the birth of his first child. Walker's compositions are guided by a serenity and gentleness that makes for a dreamy soundtrack. His acumen as a composer and instrumentalist are on full display on Paleo Sol. The album is a gorgeous reflection of Walker's own internal world as well as the detailed environment he's spent so much of his life exploring as a field geologist.
"In human reckoning, the essence of the solid earth is mostly still. Those engaged in deep time inquiry recognize the vigor of Earth's behavior, and quiescence is a small part of the action." --Barry Walker
"This is drift music, sustained by dusky drones and quiet fingerstyle. Everything's as gentle as a sunkissed stream. The pathways that once felt free and clear now sport an uneasy shade, yet the guitar picks on." --NPR Music
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LP
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HOLY 2000LP
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"The sky goes on forever in Barry Walker Jr.'s Shoulda Zenith, and it's crackling with unexpected lightning. The Tennessee-bred, Portland-based pedal steel master subverts his instrument's tradition for lachrymose, innocuous Rootzak?. Instead, he ventures to outward-bound strata more frequently traversed by Sonny Sharrock than Gram Parsons. 'So often, the pedal steel is used as a textural flavor,' Walker says, 'but it really can breathe fire itself.' Evidence for that claim abounds on Shoulda Zenith. Sprouting out of the strategies Walker used on his 2012 LP of Henry Flynt and Paul Metzger-like fiddle aberrations, Banjo Knife, the music on Zenith goes on similar extravagant tangents -- but with pedal steel. Assisted here and there by bassist Scott Derr and drummer Dana Valatka, and others, Walker has synthesized his love for country, New Age, freeform freakouts, and ecstatic music on Zenith. One can hear traces of the laid-back sinuousness of Texas psych-rockers Cold Sun, Fushitsusha's craggy, acid-rock excoriations, and Doug Sahm's sprightly melodic sweetness. One may notice 'Insect Interlude' adding new colors to Terry Riley's Rainbow In Curved Air and 'Up The Fan, Into The Keyhole' taking Sharrock's Black Woman to Appalachia. Tilt the head just right and 'Shoulda Zenith' and 'Trinity Payload' may be the most psychedelic things a pandemic-besieged mind will encounter in 2020. Cosmic country didn't know it needed its own Inventions For Electric Guitar, but now that it's arrived, the Gilded Palace Of Sin is starting to seem like a dilapidated bungalow."
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