Modern Country, William Tyler’s last solo album (2016), lived up to its clear-eyed billing as a thoughtful, contemporary take on Americana. Played mainly on electric guitar, it was as indebted to cosmic folk and the deprivation Tyler saw in the small, Trump-leaning southern towns he drove through on tour as the rhinestone-spangled country music of his home town, Nashville.
This former member of Lambchop now lives in California. Despite the potential for culture shock, on Goes West his signature sound remains consistent. If anything, the move to acoustic guitar makes Tyler – who mischievously describes his sound as “rural new age” – ever gentler on the ear. These are 10 skilful and meditative instrumental acoustic guitar renderings that bear the weight of Americana – of contemporary America – lightly, but consciously.
Eclectic jazz guitarist Bill Frisell guests, barely perceptibly, on the noticeably upbeat album closer, Our Lady of the Desert. But tracks such as Man in a Hurry are more emblematic: Tyler playing acoustic while a discreet band putter around him, creating prettiness that doesn’t sound conservative or inward-looking, but expansive and consolatory.
