Barry Walker Unit 
The proper follow-up to Barry Walker’s long overlooked, but highly essential Shoulda Zenith, one of the last records out of Holy Mountain (RIP John Witson), finds Walker joined by his bandmates from Rose City Band and Mouth Painter. The seasoned lineup turns Walker’s pedal steel sojourns into exploratory bouts of cosmic jazz and ambient country. Walker’s been an essential part of the rise of the latter enclave for years now, acting as a key pedal merchant not only in RSB, but also North Americans, Mouth Painter, and the short-lived Mouth Painter pre-amble Sinthaxis. His solo works have been anything but solitary, often finding him collaborating with psych-adjacent travelers from Scott Derr (International Hello, Monoshock) to Rob Smith (Pigeons, Rhyton), and he proves that once again, collaboration is key to turning his pedal steel divinations into something otherworldly. In fact, the album is a bit inspired by world-shifting events, recorded on the anniversary of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Lawetlat’la, an event that would irreparably shape the area around the volcano, leading to its topographical uniqueness. It’s a fitting inspiration for a geology teacher with simultaneous ties to the Northwest and the cosmic infinite.
The adoption of The Unit as his backing band has yielded one of Walker’s most expansive sets yet. Recorded live, as the title plainly states, at the 13th Moon Gravity Well, a small Portland pub, the record finds the band tipping the scales between jam, jazz-psych, and calm wells of Cosmic Country. The jazz elements come bubbling to the surface on highlight “The Origin of Broken Pieces,” making excellent use of Ripley Johnson’s melted guitar runs. The band cools the kinks of “Broken Pieces” with the slow-burn yearn of “High In the Hummocks” a piece that feels like it could have been worked out between longform jams in the RCB practice space. This piece gives Walker the most space to let the pedal shimmer, mining the most melancholy reaches of the instrument. The band leaves the terra firma on closer, Mordial :: Mortem, a piece that feels soaked in the signals of Sun Ra, leaving the expectations of a pedal steel record far behind in its cosmic dust. Walker’s only hinted at a record this far out before, but with The Unit as his foils, the live space provides a perfect springboard into the furthest reaches of psych and steel.
Support the artist. Buy it HERE.