Sir Richard Bishop shares Back Forty Lashes today, the second single and self-directed video from his forthcoming Hillbilly Erotica, out July 31st on Drag City. It follows lead single Finger, Tennessee, and lands as Bishop works his way down the US West Coast.
Drag City lay down Bishop’s terms:
“Back Forty Lashes” is a ferocious, trance-inducing piece; ‘splenetic’ is a good word for this kind of playing, but ‘music’ is a better one. Lovely lines of melody emerge like patterns amid all the frantic-strumming dust blowing around from Bishop. That’s a direction in music implied by the song title: kicking up shit, choking necks, fanning the flames past rage and raga alike. Sir Richard‘s music video chases us into the darkness of the woods, psychedelic splashes spilling through the timbers with every strum.
Hillbilly Erotica is a sequel of sorts to 2025’s Hillbilly Ragas, which Glenn Kimpton, in writing for KLOF, called it “acoustic guitar instrumental music at its most exciting and intelligent”. Where Ragas picked a fight with John Fahey’s “American Primitive” tag, Erotica carries the argument deeper “into the further frontiers of his pappy’s hometown sounds found across rural Tennessee”: mini-ragas, brined inheritance and a fair bit of savagery breaking out on the frets.
Bishop is on the road now through summer. He plays Portland’s Mississippi Studios on July 9th with Liam Grant — an ace guitarist we’ve covered — and William DeLee, whose album Raynol Overlook is forthcoming on Carbon Records and Feeding Tube Records. The run closes with an appearance at the UK’s Green Man Festival in the Brecon Beacons (August 20th–23rd), followed by an appearance at Sound & Gravity Festival on September 6th (full dates below).
Hillbilly Erotica (July 31st, 2026) Drag City
Order now: https://lnk.to/hillbillyerotica
Sir Richard Bishop Tour Dates
June 11th – Arcata, CA @ The Miniplex
June 12th – Point Reyes Station, CA @ Dance Palace
June 13th – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill (w/ Neil Hamburger)
June 14th – Orangevale, CA @ Faulkner House
June 15th – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
June 17th – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
June 19th- Tucson, AZ @ Solar Culture
June 20th – Corrales, NM @ Historic Old San Ysidro Church
June 22nd – Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
June 23rd – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
June 24th – Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club Basement
June 25th – Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown
June 26th – Seattle, WA @ Black Lodge
July 9th – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios (w/ Liam Grant & William DeLee)
August 20th–23rd – Wales, UK @ Green Man Festival (Brecon Beacons National Park)
September 6th – Chicago, IL @ Judson & Moore (Sound & Gravity Festival)