A bit of a diversion now off the path of what’s been mostly jangling lo-fi DIY Australasian guitar pop over the past few weeks, into my favourite acoustic guitar album of 2023. OK, so “SpiderBeetleBee” by Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker was released in 2017 well before the world went crazy. Somehow it only came to my attention this year, and I’m glad it did. It’s extraordinarily good, as good as anything from the masters like Renbourn, Jansch etc.

There’s only one song shared on the Drag City Records Bandcamp page for the album “The Grand Old Trout” but it’s as good a calling card for the album as any.

Bill MacKay is a Chicago based guitarist-composer-improviser. Ryley Walker was also Chicago based at the time I think but now New York based. He is also a guitarist-composer-improviser with a broad catalogue of exploratory folk-pop-jazz-prog etc albums (MacKay appears on some – check the recent “Course in Fables”). The pair have also released an earlier live album together “Land of Plenty”.  

“SpiderBeetleBee” is described as “Shared joy and acoustics in rambling conversation, as two friends travel the continents via high-road, short-cut and their own paths, yet untravelled. Picking in the tradition, Walker and MacKay summon drafts of slide blues, baroque dance, percolating latin and deep-focus space to push them on their way beyond the sunrise.” I don’t need to write anything more. If you like “The Grand Old Trout” here you’ll love the whole album.

Just found another Bandcamp page for the album which shares another quite different track, “I Heard Them Singing” which is my favourite on the album, so bonus music time. Enjoy.