Photo by Dusdin Condren

Acoustic guitarists may be a dime a dozen, but that’s because even reasonably competent players can produce something beautiful. Chicago guitarist Ryley Walker’s songs are certainly beautiful and have tons of folk and jazz in their DNA. But they offer something often unheard from an acoustic guitarist—power. The power can be subtle, like a quick growl from his otherwise clear vocals (as on new song “Sweet Satisfaction”) or confidence where other fingerpickers might exert restraint. But in his quick-moving hands, the acoustic guitar doesn’t sound so delicate. There’s a mastery and a timelessness in what this twenty-five year old can do.

As such, Walker’s sense of humor is often overlooked. His Twitter account is a constant stream of sharp witticisms and deadpan commentary of life on the road. Sample tweets include “Sound men around the Great Lakes have looked the same for 35 years” and “Let me know if you would like to make plans that eventually fall through at SXSW this year!” So while his music might seemingly reflect an old soul trapped in a young person’s body, his social media presence shows that Walker is definitely a product of this era.

Dead Oceans will release Walker’s album Primrose Green on March 31st and he’ll be at DC9 for an early show on Friday night with Woods’ Kevin Morby. We talked to Walker in advance of the show about intense (and not so intense) tour tales, the stylistic elements he’s retained from his noise band days and the bizarre cocktails that he and his friends have invented.

DCist: How’s your tour with Kevin Morby been so far?

Ryley Walker: Pretty cool. We’ve played some pretty good shows. Last night in Chicago was really fun. That was the biggest one so far, probably. The other ones have been good too though. It’s been really nice music every night.

DCist: You’ve mentioned in other interviews that there is a lot of collaboration amongst Chicago musicians. Do you have some of the people that you collaborate with in town performing on Primrose Green?

RW: Yeah. The band on the record is the band I play with live. There’s some extra people on there, too, like cello player Fred Lonberg-Holm and this girl Whitney Johnson playing viola and Jason Adasiewicz, the guy playing vibraphone. It’s all Chicago music people that are involved in a lot of different things.

DCist: It interests me to find out that you used to play in noise bands. When do you think you shifted to what you’re doing now?

RW: I think I still kind of do that in some way. It’s all about the energy of the music and stuff. I’m just sleeping on couches in basements. It hasn’t changed much from when I played noise music. It’s all good to me.

DCist: Can you elaborate on what else you’re doing that still borrows from noise music in addition to how you’re touring?

RW: We jam a lot in the songs and that’s lots of weird, kind of angular riffs within the guitar and every other instrument. So there’s definitely a lot of weird, kind of heady sounds there that carry over from that sort of stuff, no doubt.

DCist: The hilarity of your Twitter account was a fun discovery. What prompted the dig at tour documentaries? Had you just watched a bad one?

RY: Oh yeah. I just thought that was funny. We talk a lot in the van like, “Tour Documentary: I’m Hungover.” You kind of just say stupid shit the whole time you’re in the van because you’re just looking out at corn for nine hours a day. So, if it can get you by. I don’t think I was watching one, I just thought of that.

DCist: So, that’s the big secret about touring—that you’re staring at the road a lot.

RW: Yeah. Exactly.

DCist: Do you have any ridiculous tour stories in your past that are actually worth telling?

RW: Oh my god. There’s so many I could tell. One that comes to my head is my friend that I was on tour with slept in the back of the van on the hottest day on record. It was like 105 degrees out. He was cuddled in a sleeping bag and he almost died in the van. He woke up and he was pale and we were like, “Whoa, he sweat everything out because he just slept in the back of the van in 105 degree weather.” So we poured cold water on him and had him lie on a cold basement floor. Stupid things like that.

DCist: That’s intense. Who are you guys listening to right now in the van?

RW: Mostly the sound of each others’ farts. That seems to be the number one hit track. Other than that — Muslimgauze. I think that’s the big one. It’s kind of a hodgepodge of weird electronic music and beats. It’s really cool stuff.

DCist: I read that Primrose Green is named after a cocktail that you and your friends made up. Is that the only interestingly named collection of substances?

RW: No, there’s other things, too, like the “Boss Man.” That’s when you sip coffee and beer at the same time. So you take a sip of coffee, a sip of beer, a sip of coffee, a sip of beer—that’s called the “Boss Man.” That gets you super messed up. There’s another thing called a “Doobie Burger.” That’s when you smoke a bunch of weed and shotgun a beer and then smoke more weed. There’s other ones. You’ve got to have a Doobie Burger sometime.

DCist: Duly noted. The “Boss Man” sounds like something that I’ve seen people drink at SXSW.

RW: Yeah. You just get a cup of black coffee and a beer and you’ve got them both in like a minute. You do sip-sip-sip-sip-sip-sip-sip and at the end of it, you’re just like, “Whoa! I’m a boss, man.”

DCist: How has working with Dead Oceans been so far?

RW: Dead Oceans has been cool, man. They’re not evil or anything. They like good music and they’re just friends. It doesn’t really seem a lot like too much of a work thing—well there is work, obviously. We’ve got a lot of biz going on but they’re our friends. No complaints. Nothing slanderous to say about the label. I know it’s cool to bitch about your record label but they’re pretty cool.

DCist: That makes sense, though—wanting to work with your friends. Is that something you try to do?

RW: Yeah, always. Friendship is important from my angle. Sometimes people kind of meet and it goes off but for me it’s maintaining good friendships. That comes before the music and the music comes naturally after that. They feed each other.

DCist: Is there anyone that you’ve played with for a particularly long time?

RW: Yeah—Ben [Boye] and Brian [Sulpizio] that I’m taking on tour, I’ve played with for the longest out of anybody with my music. Two years probably. They’re the people I work with the most.

DCist: What do you think differentiates Primrose Green from your previous work?

RW: I think this new record is kind of different because the band is a lot more focused. It’s more of a band record. All of the songs are written with the band. We all kind of wrote together. The first one was me in my room writing stuff, kind of solo but this record was definitely written for a band, together. It’s kind of a cool process in that way.

Ryley Walker plays DC9 on Friday with Kevin Morby. Tickets here.