Shimmering lyrical pan-idiomatic interlocutions. This Long Song records release documents an extraordinary February afternoon when two improvising guitarists met forthe first time to record some music. Nothing was planned or discussed in advance. The resulting tracks are presented here in the order they were recorded, no edits, nothing added or deleted. If this project were mapped into a Venn Diagram one might see/hearthe overlapping parts hint and slide from Basho to Bailey, Cooder to Kottke, Fahey to Frisell, past with future, variety with unity. McAuley and Ray, sonic soul searchers who by coming together to converse and experiment, have created something quite singular in scope and vision. Please join them on this listening journey to SECOND EARTH.
“Spontaneous jams aren’t usually as inviting as they are challenging but these guys communed with the Muse from moment one.” – Michael Davis aka Kid Methuseluh, KXLU Los Angeles Jim McAuley began his music life as a classical guitarist, but was soon seduced by the sound of finger-picked blues, folk and jazz. His original work combines these influences into a highly personal improvisational style. His wide ranging career has included working with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Marcel Marceau, Steve Lacy to Leroy Jenkins, the groundbreaking guitar trio with Nels Cline and Rod Poole to seminal solo work under the Gongfarmer moniker. The Los Angeles Times has called Jim’s work “Genuinely evocative and refreshingly cliche-bashing.” The New York Times writes “Mr. McAuley’s precise writing and playing is full of blue figures and rich-tone, acoustic-folk resonance.
It’s peaceful and rigorous music.”
Slide guitarist Scot Ray (previously a trombonist with Brian Setzer, Jason mark, Nels Cline, Francisco Aguabella, Vinny Golia) now focuses exclusively on a modified lap steel in a tuning of his own design. Currently residing in a small mountain hamlet he can be found playing in Los Angeles and Denver on a semi-frequent basis with many new music stalwarts including Steuart Liebig, Bill Barrett, Danny Frankel, Vicki Ray, Alex Cline. “Scot Ray is a sensible master of the objective sliding truth and I wouldn’t hesitate to compare him to players on the same level of Ry Cooder and Sonny Landreth. He’s a diversified velvet-touch fingerstylist whose evolved phrasing fuses past and future seamlessly, a true joy to hear – and not only for guitarists.” – Touching Extremes, Italy