Ryley Walker | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo | racheldelsordo.com
Listen: Ryley Walker shares “The Halfwit in Me,” announces Boot & Saddle show
Chicago musician Ryley Walker will release his third LP Golden Sings That Have Been Sung via Dead Oceans on August 19th, supported by a long run of dates that hit Boot & Saddle on October 27th. The 2015 Non-COMM alum shared album single “The Halfwit In Me” this week, and as the first glimpse of Walker’s follow-up to 2015’s Primrose Green label debut (which we named one of our favorite albums of that year), it couldn’t be more enticing.
When we last heard from Walker he was improvising at the First Unitarian Church with Charles Rumback. That same freeform, avant-garde sense of arrangement comes through on “Halfwit” too, but it somehow feels incredibly poppy at the same time. Reed instruments give way to fingerpicked guitar, which gives way to the subtlest and softest of Rhodes; this is a song for late summer evenings on the front porch.
Tickets and information for Walker’s 21+ in Philly can be found here. Listen to “The Halfwit In Me” below.