Sunday 2 February 2020, 3.30pm

Photo by Evan Jenkins

Ryley Walker (solo acoustic) + Cian Nugent – MATINEE

No Longer Available

Please note that this is a matinee show – doors will open at 3:30pm and the performance will start shortly after.

“Shiver-inducing musical intensity… The jazz-math-folk troubadour of the moment.” – The Observer

Two very special solo acoustic sets in one day from American guitarist and songwriter, Ryler Walker following the release of 2018's acclaimed album, Deafman Glance. Walker is the reincarnation of the true American guitar player. That’s as much a testament to his roving, rambling ways, or the fact that his Guild D-35 guitar has endured a few stints in the pawnshop. Swap out rural juke joints for rotted DIY spaces and the archetype is solidly intact.

“It’s a good record. But I can’t really listen to it anymore. It kind of broke my brain. It took a year, and there were a lot of times I thought it was going nowhere, a lot of botched sessions. It was all my fault, no one else’s. I was just totally unprepared. I went in with over-confidence, I went in there like ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go!’ but I was just kind of bullshitting. I went in expecting to make a fucking masterpiece, but I kept hitting a brick wall.

I was under a lot of stress because I was trying to make an anti-folk record and I was having trouble doing it. I wanted to make something deep-fried and more me-sounding. I didn’t want to be jammy acoustic guy anymore. I just wanted to make something weird and far-out that came from the heart finally. I was always trying to make something like this I guess, trying to catch up with my imagination. And I think I succeeded in that way — it’s got some weird instrumentation on there, and some surreal far-out words.” – Ryley Walker in conversation with Laura Barton [more]