“Are You Open?” Seth Walker sings on his transfixing new album of the same title. More than just a question, it’s a challenge, an invitation, a dare. “To me, being open means being vulnerable and exposed,” explains Walker, “but that’s where the little nuggets of creative gold come from. I never planned an overall concept for this record, but each of these songs seemed to spin out from asking myself that one simple question.”
While Walker usually writes lyrics and melody first, for Are You Open? he built tracks from grooves, assisted by Wood Brothers drummer Jano Rix, who produced the set. That resulted in a number of different sonic flavors, touching on Cuba and the Caribbean as well as New Orleans and some Americana fare. “This is my 10th studio album, and I really wanted to go out on the skinny end of the branch and kind of test myself and challenge myself and also challenge the listeners on a little bit more of a creative endeavor,” he says. Spending time in Havana, he adds, had a particularly strong impact on his writing.
“I just got my mind blown, creatively, and came back and started writing some poetry,” he notes. “I wrote a lot of these songs completely opposite of what I usually do, getting the grooves first. That’s not my usual musical path but it was really exciting to see where it led me.”
The music is undoubtedly Walker’s most inventive, exploring new sounds and textures as he examines what it means to truly be open, both as an artist and more broadly as a human in today’s increasingly more complicated world. The result is a melting pot of sounds and perspectives, a soulful brew of roots music from the Americas and beyond. Songs frequently build off of a single chord, shifting in color and tone as they ebb and flow and stack layer upon layer over hypnotic bass lines and percussion grooves. The record features Walker’s guitar playing more heavily than ever before, and the new approach suits him well, showcasing a melodic prowess to match his prodigious lyrical gifts.
‘Are You Open?’ follows 2016’s critically acclaimed ‘Gotta Get Back,’ a stunning collection that found Walker excavating the roots of his love affair with music by reuniting the family that first sparked his fire as a child. That album traced its origins back to Walker’s native North Carolina, where he grew up on a multi-family commune and studied classical violin and cello before ultimately discovering his passion for soul, jazz, blues, and folk. He’d go on to deftly mix all those genres and more in his work as a solo artist, organically building up a celebrated two-decade career that’s earned him praise everywhere from The Washington Post to NPR.
We have Are You Open? along with these other sweet Seth platters in-stock now!
