Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker
Land of Plenty

Land of Plenty is a phenomenal collaboration between the two Chicago based guitarists Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker. It was crafted over a month long, Friday night residency at The Whistler, a live music venue/gallery/record label in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.

The album consists of seven guitar duets and it's like both guys are talking about their favorite music that spans from American and British folk, over jazz to Indian ragas and North African music traditions. 

The extra bit of magic is the fact that this was recorded live and it shows how well they play together, how they speak one language, how they are able to improvise, bounce ideas back and forth and just complement each other. I also don't know how they managed to not capture the one overly excited guy making noise at the bar who is always on every live recording. 

Songs run the gamut from fingerstyle ballads to psychedelic waltzes and raga-inspired blues. Guitar tone was a key element when selecting the tracks that made the cut. Like their live set up, Bill’s guitar can be heard on the left of the stereo picture and Ryley’s on the right. Although recorded in a bar in front of a capacity crowd, it’s not until the album’s final seconds that the fourth wall is dropped and the listener can hear the crowd’s raucous applause.

Land of Plenty was just released on vinyl and is available on bandcamp as download. Highly recommended! 

Here is clip of the two performing Blues for Arthur (on and there he is the hooter ;-))

Ryley Walker and Brian Sulpizio stretching "Summer Dress" to a 20 minutes jam.

Bill MacKay plays the requinto jarocho