Bill MacKay premieres A Handful of Wires, an original guitar-based performance collage that brings together sound, composition, improvisation and experimentation in forms. The music in Handful of Wires is an extension of MacKay’s visual art work and sculpture that uses found wire, guitar strings and wire-like metal pieces to create character-like visual art objects. The resulting effects comment on the hypnotic power of practices that shed the unnecessary and cluttered in order to find clarity of purpose and free motion. 

Bill MacKay

Bill MacKay is a Chicago-based composer, improvisor, guitarist and writer. He has created an extensive body of original work, while energizing the folk, avant-garde, and experimental diaspora. MacKay’s blissful harmonic control and outside-the-box guitar mastery are one with his compelling songwriting, and his creative voyage and imaginative influences are fully displayed across his discography. His recent records of note include: Keys (Drag City, 2021) with Nathan Bowles, Scarf (Drag City, 2020), STIR (Drag City, 2019) with Katinka Kleijn, Fountain Fire (Drag City, 2019), and Esker (Drag City, 2017).

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron plays improvised music about the natural and social ecologies of the Pacific coast. Beau Sievers plays drums and Eli Carlton-Pearson plays guitar and electronics. Their debut, Estuary, is available from Hillside Council.