Although this is not quite the musical equivalent of Hobo with a Shotgun, veteran guitarist Sir Richard Bishop’s latest for Drag City sees him in devilish fun and free-flowing form, shaping a terrific set of nine acoustic guitar solo instrumentals around creative nous, obvious chops and unselfconscious abandon.
Rewinding some, the loose concept behind Hillbilly Ragas was Bishop’s desire to strip his sound right back to the essentials, that being one acoustic guitar and no electricity. For the music, he decided to focus on and twist the now slightly dubious genre ‘American primitive’ guitar, a term casually coined by John Fahey and one that has stuck and become murkier as the years have passed, with many players shunning it completely. Bishop has issues with the term, considering the ‘primitive’ aspect as incorrect and rightly suggesting that much of the music under the umbrella is, in fact, too rigid and safe.
For Hillbilly Ragas, Bishop wanted to consider this genre and apply his own ramshackle yet rhythmic take on it, while adding a dose of the Indian and Arabic music that has touched his work over the years. With song titles like Buzzard’s Curse and They Shall Take up Serpents, there is a clue to the attitude of many of these songs and, happily, Bishop does not shy away from his strings. Indeed, opener Serpents is a fantastic piece of spiky and rhythmic guitar that focuses far less on melody. A movement of quick strummed patterns makes up the song, which switches from low, tense sections, to fast high notes, all of them played at quite a lick.
Buzzard’s Curse continues the pace, but adds a hint of the Moroccan styles that permeated Tangier Sessions, albeit played with more venom. Contrasting this somewhat is the quite beautiful Worn Slap Out, an assured piece of restrained rhythm and the longest track here at over eight minutes. There are still signs of the ferocity that drive other songs in places, but the mood is calmer for the most part, with the music bringing in more space to counter the moments of aggression. It’s a small epic and a masterpiece of rhythm and understatement.
Songs like the restless Raw Eggs and Rooster Juice effectively demonstrate Bishop’s almost anti-American primitive approach to the record, with fast-picked lines joining with quickly strummed patterns in an improvised fashion, giving the music the kind of looseness less associated with the primitive style. Cuttin’ the Shine also has an edge of this restlessness, but there are hints of Gwenifer Raymond in some of the darker parts of the song, along with a bit of acoustic Bill Orcutt in places.
This is an album that is happy to jump around from quieter picked pieces to hectic strummed patterns, but it always sounds vital and super focused. It takes a musician with Sir Richard Bishop’s prowess and creative imagination to build such a full and diverse sound from the most basic of tools, and Hillbilly Ragas is a total banger. Acoustic guitar instrumental music at its most exciting and intelligent. Boom.
Hillbilly Ragas (September 26th, 2025) Drag City