BILL MACKAY

Rolling and tumbling in his own sweet way, Bill MacKay discovers a territory all his own on 'Locust Land'.

New vistas abound: Bill adds a measure of keyboard playing to his picking mastery, sings a few more, and, a devout and ceaseless collaborator, features a few other players (Sam Wagster, Mikel Patrick Avery and Janet Beveridge Bean). Whether played solo or with companions, Bill’s music projects the strength of the universal collective. It's a record which seeks to reflect the nerve-shredding consciousness run amok in our world today — and somehow allay it with sound. Bill’s music is a visceral crackling where it meets the air, and 'Locust Land' can’t help but reflect its era more than any other in his discography. Bill’s sense of music as art is constantly modulating — lifting off from where it is found and naturally migrating to some other place. Sometimes, that’s elsewhere — others, it’s simply to be found deeper inside the starting point. And so, the action of moving on informs the landscape of Locust Land. This manifests in several different ways.

A restless energy and urgency is repeatedly felt — in the driving momentum of “Keeping in Time,” “Glow Drift,” and “When I Was Here” — while a dogged persistence radiates from the tone colors and percussion of “Oh, Pearl.” Mating a dirge-like desolation with sparkling guitars,“Radiator” adds darkness and depth. The sense of searching, displacement and longing in vocal tracks “Keeping in Time,” “Half of You,” and “When I Was Here” speak literally to the tumult of current vibrations.

Within the arrangements, there’s also departure from previous norms — in addition to the brilliant guitar work for which he is known, Bill plays a variety of keyboards, from piano to organ to synth, extending his music with the available voicings, while enriching the sound field without abandoning his signature brevity. For fans of his singing, and following in the recent tradition of Fountain Fire as well as his collaboration with Nathan Bowles, Keys, Locust Land expresses with an increased vocal presence — and heightened engagement, with Bill’s words and melodies drawing us closer.