William Tyler & The Impossible Truth

William Tyler Goes West on new studio album due January 25, shares “Fail Safe”

On January 25, William Tyler returns with Goes West, his follow-up to 2016’s Modern Country. Listen to first single “Fail Safe” now, and pre-order Goes West on CD, LP, and limited-edition translucent green Peak Vinyl, the latter of which includes a 24” × 36” full-color foldout poster of the Robert Beatty cover art. All pre-orders will receive Dispatches from Echo Magic, an 8-song bonus CD available only in the Merge store or with the purchase of Goes West at your local independent record store, while supplies last. Recorded with Scott Hirsch at Echo Magic West in Ojai, CA, the CD features early versions of five songs from Goes West plus three other tracks from the session that are only available here.

Listen to & share William Tyler’s “Fail Safe” now

An excerpt from the M.C. Taylor-penned bio:

William and I bonded early in our relationship over Barry Hannah, a hellraising writer from Mississippi who practically reinvented the way that words could be assembled on a page. Like Hannah, William Tyler knows the South—as a crucible of American histories and cultures, an entity capable of expansive beauty and incomprehensible violence, often in the same beat—as his native place, the place that holds him and that he runs from. In the music of William Tyler, the South is not apart from America; the South is America condensed. And like Hannah—and this part is important—William moved to California, where Goes West was written. We don’t know how long William will stay—Hannah lasted just a couple of years, writing in the employ of director Robert Altman—but the change of scenery seems to suit him.

Goes West marks a sort of narrowing of focus for William’s music; it sounds as though he found a way to point himself directly towards the rich and bittersweet emotional center of his music without being distracted by side trips. Perhaps this is down to the fact that William only plays acoustic guitar on the album, a clear and conscious decision considering that he is one of Nashville’s great electric guitarists. The band that performs Goes West alongside William—including guitarists Meg Duffy and Bill Frisell, bassist and producer Brad Cook, keyboardist James Wallace, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and engineer Tucker Martine—is the best and most sympathetic group of players that William could have assembled to play these songs.

William Tyler is currently performing solo sets on tour with Ty Segall. Stay tuned for more Goes West news by following Tyler on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

William Tyler on tour:
Nov 06 Burlington, VT – Higher Ground*
Nov 07 Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall*
Nov 08 Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom*
Nov 09 Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw*

Jordan Perry is a guitarist based in Charlottesville, Virginia.  His most recent album "What Do You See Everyday?" is currently available from Feeding Tube Records in collaboration with 2020 Records and tapes.

“Jordan Perry’s latest is only 36 minutes long but widely varied and full of rewarding moments. The core voice remains the nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, but at various points it is joined by or set aside in favor of electronics, wordless vocals, birdsong, fiddle and/or melodica. The thoughtful sequencing of the tracks creates the impression of a pleasant journey through, presumably, the sights and sounds that a person might encounter every day.

Perry has developed over a series of albums a style of playing and composition that reflects the influence, direct or indirect, of modern classical and avant-garde composers as well as the Takoma school. Each of the solo guitar pieces—the first track, “Theme,” the title track, and closer “Redact”—unfolds as an often unpredictable series of single notes or clusters of notes with frequent harmonics separated by space and connected by sustain. The hypnotic combination of patterns with seeming randomness is akin to watching leaves fall or waves ripple.”

-Jim Marks, Dusted Magazine, 2023

“Another fantastic slab by Virginia-based guitarist Jordan Perry, whose style fuses disparate threads from the American Primitive and avant garde songbooks into a unique alloy. 

For this album Primitivism has largely been eclipsed by avant urges. Still, there is one track, “Days Have Gone By Volume” where Jordan is joined by guitarist Ned Oldham for a piece evoking Fahey in more than its title. But that is the exception. Most of What Do You See Every Day? is filled with abstractions for acoustic guitar. His work has a genteel aura and pacing in which free melodies are played inside the context of graspable rhythmic structures. This simultaneously highlights their weirdness, and dials it back contextually by having the music emerge in a clearly delineated flow. The act of not-rushing things has the effect of softening the potentially sharp edges of the sound. 

Jordan also plays melodica on a track, “For Three,” which shimmers with a liturgical edge reminiscent of plainsong. He is joined on another track, “From Traces What Do You?,” by wordless vocalizing from two Virginia singers, Diane Cluck and Devon Sproule. Their voices (plus Jordan’s own) add an ethereal otherness that is quite lovely. As is the avian field recording on “Five Hours.”

But the bulk of the music is guitar-centric and beautiful off-kilter. There are little flashes of jazziness that make me think of some of Duck Baker’s work, but only for a moment. There are also bursts that seem to parallel some of the experimental work Mike Cooper has been doing for last couple of decades. But, as usual, Jordan Perry is walking a path all his own. And it is a beautiful way to wander.”

-Byron Coley, Feeding Tube Records, 2023

“What Do You See Everyday?” on Bandcamp

https://jordanperry1.bandcamp.com/album/what-do-you-see-every-day-4

“What Do You See Everyday?” Music Video

https://vimeo.com/842505400?share=copy

“What Do You See Everyday?” Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/album/6FottuAiiGTtqP062JjOQO?si=0Jl6Ydb1R7izOY3wL-VUlw