Head for the ‘Primrose Green’ with Ryley Walker

Keely Chisholm ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Singer/songwriter and guitarist Ryley Walker will be releasing his second full-length album, titled Primrose Green, on March 31st of this year. Following 2014’s releases of the debut album All Kinds of You and the EP The West Wind, the second album will be a continuation of the folk sound audiences were introduced to with last year’s releases. Sprinkled with traces of jazz, blues, and indie rock, Walker established himself with a sound out of America’s past that manages to find its place in the modern music landscape.

Primrose Green’s release is prefaced with the release of the title track. Combining piano, guitar, and Walker’s soulful vocals, it has the potential to feel patchwork in the composition, with the elements fitting together almost miraculously at times with Walker’s voice as the thread for the main body of the song. It’s a driving song, but the one you’d play before you hit the open road. This one is for the start of the journey at dawn, when you’re starting up your car and leaving the neighborhood to get to the highway. It’s deceptively calming, with lyrics that paint the “primrose green” of the song and album title as something borne of a hallucination or the imagination.

Walker will be touring the U.S. and the U.K. starting March 5th to promote the album. He’ll also make appearances at local festivals including the Savannah Stopover Music Festival and the Big Ears Festival.