Here’s a story for you. Sir Richard Bishop, prolific, virtuosic guitarist and founding member of experimental Arizonan troupe Sun City Girls, was last year living in Geneva. He was after a new instrument, handy enough to carry around, and, just as he was about to leave a backstreet luthier’s empty-handed, was presented with a somewhat cobwebbed, yet beautiful acoustic guitar, its sole identifying mark being a sticker bearing the C. Bruno manufacturer’s name. He immediately falls for it, decides it’s too expensive, leaves, returns, goes through the same hand-wringing, only – third time’s a charm – to come back once more, and hand over a fair wad of Swiss Francs. His pride and joy in tow, he then heads to Tangier in Morocco to record an album over the summer, leaving us, blessedly, with the document of this getting acquainted: the aptly-titled Tangier Sessions, his new album on Drag City, due on February 16 2015. And, with exquisite timing, they’ve kindly given us a first play of the record’s opening track, ‘Frontier’, a prime example, not only of his guitar’s resonant qualities but of Bishop’s deft, dexterous playing. Listen above, and read our most recent interview with Bishop here.
LISTEN: Sir Richard Bishop – Frontier
First taste of new album, Tangier Sessions, forthcoming next February
