Chicago-based guitarist Bill MacKay returns on 22nd March with Fountain Fire, his second solo album on Drag City and follow-up to Esker which his label are declaring to be his most expansive and forceful music to date, catalyzing a style equally enamoured with the traditional and the avant-garde.
On lead-single Pre-California, Bill assembles a bridge of guitars, layering beams of rumbling acoustic, distorted electric, and arcing slide parts. By leaping boldly from fixed points, he makes synergistic discoveries in mid-air. This is the MacKay writing style in its most evolved state thus far, following serpentine paths within the patterns, lunging in and out of tonality with instinctive flair and a stoic sense of inevitability, forging a sonic mosaic that breathes and grows organically as it fills the space of a song.
Watching “Pre- California”, directed & shot by Timothy Breen, the movement of Bill’s songwriting is perfectly encapsulated by visuals; in the window we see california before California, before Califerne or Calida Fornax, the hot furnace in which matter and thought are free to unravel.
It’s an irresistable opener and is also our Song of the Day.
TOUR DATES
Jan. 17 @ Sleeping Village in Chicago, IL*
Mar. 9 @Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, Mexico^
Mar. 21 @ The Little Fleet in Traverse City, MI
Mar. 23 @ Kaiju in Louisville, KY %
Mar. 24 @ Pilot Light in Knoxville, TN %
Mar. 25 @ Bastion in Nashville, TN
Mar. 26 @ Green Lantern in Lexington, KY
Mar. 27 @ State Street Pub in Indianapolis, IN
Mar. 28 @ Torn Light in Cincinnati, OH
Mar. 29 @ The Hideout in Chicago, IL
Mar. 30 @ Acme in Milwaukee, WI
Apr. 10 @ Reverberation Vinyl in Bloomington, IL
*Tomorrow Never Knows Festival
^Lit y Luz Festival
% w/ Black Duck
Pre-Order Fountain Fire: https://lnk.to/fountainfire
Photo Credit: William Keihn