Fountain Fire

Fountain Fire is Bill MacKay's second solo album on Drag City. The Chicago-based guitarist's continued sonic journeys in conversation with himself follow a travel-worn map written in his own hand. Bill has followed the trail from familiar confines to unknown places, catalyzing a style equally enamored with the traditional and the avant-garde to make his most expansive and forceful music to date. You can hear it in the opening track; as the lava and lakes of 'Pre-California' simmer to boiling, Bill assembles a bridge of guitars, layering beams of rumbling acoustic, distorted electric, and arcing slide parts. By leaping boldly from fixed points, he makes synergetic discoveries in mid-air. This is the MacKay writing style in its most evolved state thus far, following ser- pentine paths within the patterns, lunging in and out of tonality with instinctive flair and a stoic sense of inevitability, forging a sonic mosaic that breathes and grows organically as it fills the space of a song. Yet there is far more here than straitlaced sonic captures of picker's prowess and captivating harmonic motivation. Bill's pieces are informed by meditation and memory, impression- istic as cinematic miniatures, inspired as much by filmic and literary passions as by sure-playing hands, and always rooted with deep soul and steady intention.

Tracks

1~1~Pre-California
1~2~Birds Of May
1~3~The Movie House
1~4~Man & His Panic
1~5~Welcome
1~6~Try It On
1~7~Arcadia
1~8~Dragon Country

Details

Format: CD
Artist: Bill Mackay
Release Date: 22 March 2019
Genre: Alternative
Label: DRAG CITY
Distributor: Rocket Group