![]() "JTR" switches gears to free jazz halfway through, while "Diggin' a Ditch" moves beyond the Midwest and recalls the feedback-drenched tones of Dinosaur Jr. Inspired by the Chicago-area artists he grew up idolizing (including the Sea and Cake and Tortoise's Jeff Parker), The Lillywhite Sessions isn't so much a straight covers album, but an amalgamation of the songs and styles that have defined the guitarist and self-described music nerd over the years. It's that confluence of events - coming of age during the time of file sharing a teenage musical awakening still being unable to separate "good" from "bad" music - that's ultimately at play in Walker's The Lillywhite Sessions: a track-by-track cover of the DMB's long-lost (and endlessly shareable) album of the same name that also acts as equal parts tribute and exploration into why we love the music we love. He was only 12 at the time, but the moment obviously had a major impact on his life. ![]() That's how American singer-songwriter Ryley Walker ended up with an unreleased Dave Matthews Band album when a friend gave him a copy with the CD burner they got for Christmas the previous year. Jam band fans immediately benefitted from the technology. ![]() When file sharing turned from a fringe hobby to music industry up-ender, it wasn't just the day's singles traded around online, but lesser-known material as well: album leaks, live recordings, songs from far-off locales. In other words, Walker plays it exceedingly straight, even when he's delivering good-time numbers like "Kit Kat Jam." This po-faced sincerity winds up underscoring Walker's debt to Dave Matthews Band - they now seem like a clear influence on his adventurous folk-jazz - while also highlighting the imagination behind the original set of songs.According to a theory first made popular on the internet by since-suspended Twitter user the number one song on your 14th birthday defines your life.īut there's something wrong with that postulation: what if you weren't listening to modern pop radio as a teenager? What if, like a lot of kids coming of age in the early 2000s, you received your music in the form of burnt CD-Rs from older siblings, or late night LimeWire deep dives? At times, he ratchets up the darkness - "Diggin' a Ditch" opens with a furious open-string guitar drone, his "Bartender" veers into claustrophobia, "Monkey Man" is turned into a cloistered clutter - but he also keeps an eye on both Matthews' elliptical songs and DMB's loose-limbed jazz fusion. Certainly, that dark atmosphere - dubbed "sad bastard" by Matthews - drew Walker to the record, but his version of The Lillywhite Sessions isn't especially gloomy. Despite Busted Stuff featuring renditions that weren't dramatically different in arrangement, The Lillywhite Sessions retained a cult following because it had a downer vibe unique among DMB albums. Eventually, drummer Carter Beauford instigated the shelving of The Lillywhite Sessions - so dubbed because it, like its three predecessors, was produced by Steve Lillywhite the record was never officially titled - but the group didn't abandon the material, choosing to revive nine of its 12 songs for 2002's Busted Stuff.īy that point, The Lillywhite Sessions became one of the first unreleased albums to leak on the internet, its circulation assisted by DMB fans who were already trading live tapes. Matthews' love of drink isn't hidden - the man owns his own line of wine, Dreaming Tree - but he imbibed a little bit too much during the recording of The Lillywhite Sessions, a move that coincided with a general aimlessness within the ranks after the group vaulted to superstardom. Sobriety isn't a word associated with DMB at the dawn of the 2000s. Walker may crack wise on Twitter, but he takes his music seriously, so his version of this shelved 2001 album is very sober indeed. Ryley Walker cultivated a reputation as an internet jester so news that he decided to cover the unreleased Dave Matthews Band album The Lillywhite Sessions initially seemed to be a prank.
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