A follow-up to his Hillbilly Ragas, the new album from Sir Richard Bishop is a brief blast of brilliance. Hillbilly Erotica confirms Bishop's place as one of the best guitarists alive today. That this was recorded live, with no overdubs makes the record even more impressive.
Bishop favors a style that's muscular, and one which seems to be a tiny bit rooted in classical traditions, though this music is hardly that. Opener "Lick Skillet" is a raga-ish riff-rocker, while "Finger, Tennessee" finds Sir Richard leaning into a more lyrical approach, one which has a faint trace of both Lester Flatt and Jimmy Page about it. What makes Hillbilly Erotica so listenable is that the music has this quality where you feel like you are hearing things you heard before elsewhere being blended in a new and exciting fashion. "Sweet Lips Spiritual" is gorgeous, Bishop unfurling plucked notes atop a melody which feels lush. The tense "Bride of Rhythm Methodist" is another highlight of a different sort.
A Sir Richard Bishop album is one to get lost in. It's interesting that we get a new Bishop album in the same week that Vini Reilly offers up a new Durutti Column record. The styles are not entirely similar but with both you're faced with the prospect of losing yourself to a very personal form of guitar-based music. This isn't quite rock, nor classical, nor jazz or ambient either, but it's so distinctive that you realize you're hearing something wonderfully special being created with each note that is put forward. Highly recommended stuff here.
Hillbilly Erotica by Sir Richard Bishop is out this week on Drag City.
[Photo: Hans van der Linden