Name: Esker
Brand: Bill Mackay

Tax rate EU

Default:19

Supplier EU

375 Media

Total Cap

Format detail

Colour details

Discogs ID

Limited edition

Colour

Format Music EU

Extended format

Extended format: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Download code

Download code: No

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Release date

2017-05-04

Format multiplier

Catalogue number

5186141

UPC / Barcode

781484067610

5186142

781484067627

Artist

Bill Mackay

Label EU

Drag City

Genre EU

Classic

Drag City is a renowned music label that was founded by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn. With an impressive roster of artists, Drag City has established itself as a leading force in the music industry. Known for their diverse range of genres, the label has consistently released groundbreaking and influential albums. From indie rock to experimental folk, Drag City continues to push boundaries and nurture innovative talent.

Since its inception, Drag City has been dedicated to supporting artists who defy conventions and create unique sounds. The label's commitment to artistic freedom has allowed musicians to explore their creativity without limitations. This approach has resulted in a catalog of critically acclaimed albums that have resonated with audiences worldwide.

With an unwavering focus on quality over quantity, Drag City carefully curates its releases, ensuring each album receives the attention it deserves. Their meticulous attention to detail extends beyond the music itself, with beautifully designed album artwork and packaging that enhance the overall listening experience.

Bill MacKay

Newest Listed Items

Bill MacKay is a musician and a musician’s friend - a genial guitarist / composer / improviser based in Chicago who has energized the experimental folk, rock and avant scenes around town with his polyglot approach to the guitar, combining the folk of Appalachia, the blues and gospel with rock, jazz, Western country and an array of eastern modes. Over the past decade-plus, he has recorded records for Tompkins Square, Whistler, Relay, and ears&amp;ears, both as a solo artist and with his band Darts and Arrows, while performing and collaborating with a number of other artists. Bill’s most recent album was Sunrise, in which he examined the songs of John Hulbert, whose 1972 private press classic Opus III reflected a uniquely mid-Western hybridization of finger style and city blues playing. MacKay’s interest in this tactic - essentially, a personal blending of roots elements - has evidenced itself throughout his discography. On Esker, his third solo work, Bill takes it further with an album of all-original material performed entirely in consort with himself. Playing all the parts with guitars, glass slide, bass, piano and percussion, he deepens his hybrid-genre approach with both contrast and cohesion, creating warm, melodic narratives that draw on folk, psych and experimental rock modes. Side one themes range from the Moorish air, Aster, to early American strains and pure chunks of folk rock, while side two finds Bill expanding into abstract spaces as he realizes a long held goal: casting the rolling spirit of the landscape in song. The album’s extended closer, Scarlet’s Return, overlaps liquid slide guitars and gently loping rhythm, slowly building a raga-esque fugue state, cinematic in its progression, with primal airs and complex psychology evoked by every new passage.  With cover images from fellow Chicago musician and friend Marc Riordan, the cumulative impact of ‘Esker’ is of peaceful oneness for the active listener. The dynamic singularity with which Bill ties his interests together is the key to his music, an effortless combination of wide ranging elements that evokes a warm and enveloping view of the world around us.

Esker

Music EU