MacKay — an acclaimed guitarist, composer and improviser based in Chicago — has recorded music since 2004. In 2017, he released “Esker,” his first solo album on Drag City, an independent record label based in Chicago. Since then, MacKay has released several collaborations and solo projects on the label, including his latest, “Locust Land,” from 2024.
He’s a prolific collaborator across the musical spectrum, with a genre-bending style rooted in experimental folk, rock and avant-garde traditions.
MacKay brings that ethos to Yellow Springs on Feb. 28, performing a solo set at the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, 805 Livermore St. Opening the show is Dayton-based percussion duo Neutrals, offering drone and noise-based improvisations and compositions.
Many of MacKay’s songs are instrumental and melodic; much of that repertoire grows out of a montage-like approach that begins with a melody and waits for something to complement it — often another melody, sometimes words — even if that process takes years. (He once sat on one riff for a decade before finding its mate.)
“If you have a melody that speaks to you or is powerful to you, you could put endless scores of words to it, and they might imply words too,” MacKay said. “A really interesting thing in writing is going for something that is really pleasurable, or candy to the mind or ear, trying to look for a twist in it that feels natural.”
As a collaborator, he’s worked alongside cellist Katinka Kleijn on the avant-rock and classical album, “STIR”; Ryley Walker on two albums, “SpiderBeetleBee” and “Hypnotic Pulse of the Reindeer Range”; and Nathan Bowles on the spirited 21st century folk record, “Keys.” He’s also the founder of the bands Sounds of Now, Broken Things and Darts & Arrows.
MacKay once described his sound as “garage jazz,” a fitting shorthand for a career that defies easy categorizations.
When he arrived in Chicago, MacKay’s musical sensibilities better fit with improvisational groups than rock bands. He gravitated toward instrumental work, which submerged the need for vocals and lyrics for a while. This may explain his instrumentalist tendencies in his solo work.
But his myriad collaborations allowed him to explore and use a handful of ideas that previously didn’t have a place.
“If you have a bunch of different dishes, it makes all the other dishes feel stronger, or makes them feel more defined,” MacKay said. “The solo records, to me, now seem more defined because of how different they are, and the others are different from each other as well.”
When MacKay plays solo, he doesn’t attempt to recreate the experience of layered studio tracks. He doesn’t use a looper pedal to give the illusion of multiple instruments. There is no drum machine, and no attempt to recreate multi-tracking on stage.
He has a guitar that is played through a small board and an amplifier. He doesn’t hammer cowboy chords. He just maintains the rhythm, bass and lead lines, and sometimes sings. It’s art, deconstructed — a stripped-down exchange between instrument, melody and room.
“I don’t not play something live just because it was done with a lot of tracks,” MacKay said. “If I can get the essence of the song, melody and feel of the song across, that’s the determiner.”
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Bill MacKay
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 28
Where: Herndon Gallery, 805 Livermore St., Yellow Springs
Cost: $20 general admission / $5 student admission
Tickets: antiochcollege.edu
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