Barry Walker Jr.

It’s a good week for the calm comforts of pedal steel with a team-up from UK fave Joe Harvey-Whyte and Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Geir Sundstøl and this excellent new album from longtime site fave Barry Walker Jr. on the decks this morning. Walker has been pivotal in Northwest Circles, filling out the steel ranks of Rose City Band, North Americans, and Mouth Painter, but he’s always been a mesmerizing force on his own as well. Recent years have seen a few collaborative projects with his name on the marquee. Last year he treated up with members of the RCB extended crew for a prickly country-psych live side as the Barry Walker Unit and this year for his latest on Thrill Jockey he’s Joined by Jason Wilmon (Mouth Painter) and Rob Smith (Gray/Smith, Rhyton).

Paleo Sol is a record rooted in the natural world, reflected in the geological and topographical references in it titles. The album sees Walker not only focus on the pedal steel, but bring in some of his own acoustic string work as well. With the rounded out trio in place, the album brushes against the current waves of ambient country, but doesn’t completely succumb to it’s wiles. There’s a feeling of the band painting landscapes in lush reverberation, turning the soft sweep of steel and the brush of drums into amber hued vistas. Yet, the album doesn’t rest on formula. The 12+ minute centerpiece ‘Sentient Lithosphere” perches on patient plucks, a Western raga for trail wanderers and soul searchers. The world has shifted six times over since Walker’s last solo outing, Shoulda Zenith, but Paleo Sol is a perfect continuation of it’s journey, a record that’s been soaked and scarred, tumbled down and polished into an earthen treasure.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.