Song of the Day: Ryley Walker - Primrose Green

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “Primrose Green” by Ryley Walker from the 2015 album Primrose Green on Dead Oceans.

Ryley Walker - Primrose Green (MP3)

After cutting his teeth in a series of bands in Chicago's long and storied noise rock scene, Ryley Walker traded his drive pedals for a modest acoustic guitar and found himself heading in a new artistic direction. Born in Rockford, Illinois, Walker became fascinated with the guitar in his adolescence, dabbling in acoustic playing but finding more camaraderie in chunky power chords and distortion when he left home for Chicago. After membership in a series of groups that played "shitty punk music" (his words), Walker eventually became more interested in acoustic-based songwriting, and began playing small club shows in Chicago rather than in the basements he once occupied. After a pair of cassette releases established Walker's presence, he injured himself in a bike accident, which forced him to focus full time on playing shows and writing songs. His first full length, All Kinds of You, was released in 2014, and its followup arrived less than a year later in the form of Primrose Green. A breezy and crisply-performed tune, "Primrose Green" shows Walker sharpening the talents that he displayed on All Kinds of You. With backing from a group of Chicago jazz musicians, the song unwinds at a leisurely pace, carried loosely by the musicians' dazzling chemistry. Named for a cocktail that Walker and his friends invented (whiskey and morning glory seeds), "Primrose Green" couldn't be more aptly named: it's vibrant and entrancing in its ability to make its intricate parts look naturally flowing.

Ryler Walker is on tour throughout the Spring in the American South and Midwest. If he announces plans to return west of the Ohio river, that news will be on his Facebook and Twitter. Below, revisit the soon-to-be Primrose Green track "Summer Dress" from Ryley's last visit to KEXP in 2014.