Nashville guitarist William Tyler is well known in musician's circles. At home he's called "Willy T," and he's made a name for himself in the indie rock and folk worlds collaborating with everyone from the Silver Jews and Lambchop to Simone White and Bonnie Prince Billy. His own solo debut, Behold the Spirit, on New York's wondrous Tompkins Square label, is aptly titled. It is indeed a mysterious amalgam of acoustic guitar styles that reveals the influence of Anglo players such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Davey Graham, ...
Read More
Nashville guitarist William Tyler is well known in musician's circles. At home he's called "Willy T," and he's made a name for himself in the indie rock and folk worlds collaborating with everyone from the Silver Jews and Lambchop to Simone White and Bonnie Prince Billy. His own solo debut, Behold the Spirit, on New York's wondrous Tompkins Square label, is aptly titled. It is indeed a mysterious amalgam of acoustic guitar styles that reveals the influence of Anglo players such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Davey Graham, and even Jimmy Page. That said, one can also hear the fingerstyle picking of Mississippi John Hurt and Jorma Kaukonen in Tyler's approach to the guitar. But, recording in the 21st century, he is also not a purist, and in this regard has much more in common with someone like his peer James Blackshaw, as a composer and a player. While the acoustic guitar is the predominant instrument on this beguiling set of nine originals, subtle shades of electronics, brass, violin, percussion, pedal steel, and piano also appear. The album opens with the mysterious "Terrace of the Leper King," where a pronounced but slightly reverbed acoustic guitar playing a droning dirge is augmented by traces of a barely audible conversation, a ghostly trace of brass, and the incidentals of Page's trademarked DADGAG tuning. Clocking in at eight-and-a-half minutes, the piece is its own journey that ends far from where it began. "Oahspe" begins with ambient noise in empty space before Tyler begins with a deliberate slow strum, opening a melody that at once suggests memory, a dreamy reverie, and the intimacy of a mirror. His fingers pull at the middle and high strings even as his chords create a frame; that is, before he rips the seam and flurries of notes enter the fray, though their urgency is tempered by warmth in his use of reverb. "The Cult of the Peacock Angel," with its employment of pedal steel, violin, and multi-tracked acoustic guitars, begins in one time and space and poetically cracks, opening another more provocatively impure one; controlled feedback and dissonance become part and parcel of a harmonic construction that never surrenders its sense of order but delightfully struggles with it nonetheless. Behold the Spirit is an otherworldly recording. Certainly it is rooted in folk music, but it cannot be contained by it. It enters the culture from so many directions -- both inside and outside the usual dialogues -- it is by its nature something quite other , that is at once strange and almost unspeakably beautiful. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
Read Less
Add this copy of Behold the Spirit to cart. $24.99, fair condition, Sold by Service First Media rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Taylorsville, KY, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Tompkins Square.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. Ex-Library rental. Disc(s) are professionally cleaned and may contain only light scratches that do not effect functionality. Includes disc(s), case, and artwork. May be missing booklet. Disc(s), case, and artwork may contain library/security stickers and ink writing. ARTWORK IS UNORIGINAL AND PRINTED BY LIBRARY. Case and artwork may show some wear. Case may not be an original jewel case. All disc(s) are authentic.
Add this copy of Behold the Spirit to cart. $30.82, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Tompkins Square.
Add this copy of Behold the Spirit (Ltd) [Vinyl] to cart. $38.37, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2010 by Import.
![Modern Country [LP]](https://www4.alibris-static.com/modern-country-lp/cover/y69071pgyd5.jpg)
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.