Course In Fable (studio album) by Ryley Walker

So underrated, a delicious and intriguing little piece of art

From Mercury 04/08/2021 20:20

(A warm, damn-near-perfectly recorded Prog Folk album with delicate and beautiful jazzy parts and a certain upbeat and extroverted willingness to go wherever the music takes it/him. This is a BEAUTIFUL album and a breathe of fresh air in music form.)

Ryley Walker is many things. He's a great guitarist, abstract and usually brilliant lyricist, a prolific maker of music, an adventurer into whatever musical direction his interests take him, he's a playful and not too self-serious dude it seems to me from the outside looking in. The fact that in just 7 years he has dropped 12 studio albums either solo or in collaboration with others and 3 live albums and myriad other little recordings no doubt that I am not aware of is impressive. When coming to this album I didn't know exactly what to expect except I knew to expect a distinct artistic expression of some sort.

What we have here is an immensely creative, lively, bright mix of Prog rock and prog folk with some joking and somewhat hard to decipher lyrical detours, and a whole smattering of off-the-wall instrumental jazzy and abstract byroads. These elements come together for a fascinating, rich musical experience. His vocals were never a highlight of his music, and that is true also on this album. Except...there is something very likable and welcoming about his nonchalant attitude and somewhat plain vocals on here. So likable, as a matter of fact, that when this album goes down a long instrumental stream I find myself looking forward to hearing his plain voice again and hearing what he has to say.

I saw one review on RYM saying this has a Spring Time vibe and that its a perfect spring time album. And I can hear that as well. There is something upbeat, sunny, optimistic about the warm guitar tones here and the extroverted prog change ups and the way the album just exudes a certain creative fun that evokes that bracing feeling of spring time's long-awaited arrival. This is a lovely album. Very replayable and likely to present many new sounds to your ears each time through. And, really, the music just sounds goooood. The way the guitars and drums and bass and everything else is recorded here sounds so warm and so present, the production is crystalline and excellent. This sounds like something that could have been released in 1974 alongside some of those great John Martyn, Joni Mitchell and Roy Harper albums of the time. The free-spirited willingness of Walker to delve so fully into Prog and folk and jazz rock/folk and whatever else he so chooses and to record the sounds so warmly and lovingly makes this one of the coolest and best albums I've heard this year.