#bill mackay

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Pre-California by Bill MacKay

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Black Duck—S-T (Thrill Jockey)

Photo by Evan Jenkins

Black Duck by Black Duck

Chicago is the kind of town where it sometimes seems that everyone has played with everyone else, and indeed within and even across genres including jazz, post-rock, improvised music, folk, blues, electronics and even contemporary classical music, cross pollination proliferates. So it is not exactly surprising to see two Ryley Walker duet partners join forces with a Tortoise founder, who has himself, at times, played with both of them, and in more than one project. Black Duck might be an enduring musical undertaking or a one-off permutation of the Windy City’s considerable talent pool. Either way, it’s a winner.

To be specific, Black Duck is made up of Bill MacKay, Doug McCombs and Charles Rumback, all three of them artists whose work ranges across genres and puts them into contact with each other in a variety of contexts. Just for instance, when I went to see Meg Baird in Chicago last year, Doug McCombs was playing in her band as well as Chris Forsyth’s outfit, and Bill MacKay stood just off stage waiting to be called up by Forsyth. Rumback wasn’t there that night, but you get the idea. Bands are a fluid thing in Chicago.

MacKay’s main instrument is guitar—and his playing ranges from finger-picked folk to raging electric distortion to eerily beautiful slide. McCombs is best known for playing bass in Tortoise, for his multi-instrumental work in Brokeback and for turning up whenever musicians need help finding a groove. Rumback is a drummer with a background in jazz and a strong melodic sense; in his duets with Ryley Walker, he served as an equal partner, driving the song forward as much as the guitarist. In Black Duck, they draw on many different aspects of their respective, eclectic backgrounds, flitting freely from sun-drenched cosmic country, to driving kraut rock, to radiant, enveloping ambiences, all played so expertly that it seems effortless, though it probably isn’t.

Consider, for instance, “Of the Lit Back Yards, the trippy country daydream that kicks off the album, brushes shuffling, bass grumbling, guitar dripping unhurried sweetness. If a roadhouse bar band died and went to heaven, it might sound a lot like this. It has almost nothing in common with the driving blues vamp that powers “Delivery,” bass line licking flames around a motorik beat, and yet the two sit comfortably one track away from one other in the sequencing. What’s between them is even more incongruous, the shivering atmospheres and rolling thunder of “Foothill Daze” (oh, hey, there’s that unearthly slide I was talking about). And yet different as these tracks are, they fit together in a strange surreal way, like the soundtrack to a movie you don’t quite understand, and they are undeniably beautiful.

To my ears, “Lemon Treasure,” near the end, does the best job at bringing all these different elements together. It pulses like a locomotive. It dreams like a lotus eater. It lets notes of soap bubble delicacy bloom alongside rough-riding rhythms. It’s an irresistible groove and an opium vision, and when you think about it, who else could have made this track? These three guys, that’s who. Long live Black Duck.

Jennifer Kelly

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Bill MacKay & Nathan Bowles: The Hideout 2019

Noted bestplace, The Hideout, brought esteemed heads Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles together as part of their Picnics on the Porch series...a great time was had by all (except for setbreaklady, I guess).  Over the course of two short/excellent/hypnotic sets, the pair picked their way through a few of each other’s tunes, a few covers and one deeply-zoned improv. Even evilLincolnYards’ unnecessary/sprung-up-overnight soccer fields causing a ruckus directly across from the Porch couldn’t wreck the vibe of that perfect latesummer evening.  Seems Bill & Nathan recently hit the studio, which is good news for everybody. Bill MacKay & Nathan Bowles 9.13.2019 @ The Hideout Chicago, IL set1: Rise [MacKay] Umbra [Bowles] Freight Train [Elizabeth Cotton] Stump Sprout [Bowles] Pretty Weeds Revisited [MacKay] at setbreak a lovely woman (aka irritating chomper) decided to call a fellow patiopatron a DICKWHORE before storming off to her car, it was fantastic set2: You Win Again [Hank Williams] The I in Silence [Bowles] Free Thing [MacKay / Bowles] Fresh & Fairly So [Bowles] Bill MacKay - guitar, requinto Nathan Bowles - banjo stream download

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Bill MacKay & Nathan Bowles - The Hideout, Chicago, Illinois, September 13, 2019

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to kiss this workweek goodbye with a deep listen to Joel’s tape of two master stringmen — Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles! Two sets, all golden. 

Joel sez: Over the course of two short/excellent/hypnotic sets, the pair picked their way through a few of each other’s tunes, a few covers and one deeply-zoned improv. Even evil LincolnYards’ unnecessary/sprung-up-overnight soccer fields causing a ruckus directly across from the Porch couldn’t wreck the vibe of that perfect late summer evening. 

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BILL MACKAY and KATINKA KLEIJN "Hermine", taken from 'STIR', available on October 11th, 2019 from @dragcityusa-blog.

Video by Timothy Breen.

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In Castle Dome by Ryley Walker from the album Deafman Glance

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I got this flyer at the local record store today.  It uses Davis Meltzer’s cover art for the 1972 Ace paperback edition of Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick.