Bill MacKay is a guitarist, composer, singer and improviser based in Chicago. A renowned solo artist and accomplished collaborator MacKay has pursued his musical investigations with obsessive rigor, releasing seven LPs since 2017.
A deep radiance envelopes MacKay’s sonic explorations and songwriting, and his trajectory travels seamlessly from the avant-garde to folk, pop and rock modes – and further. In his music, tradition is invited to be reinvented.
MacKay is also a poet, visual artist and polyglot, and is a member of both the avant-garde rock outfit Black Duck (with Douglas McCombs) and the experimental groove-drone project BCMC (with Cooper Crain).
Among many other publications, his work has received praise in the Chicago Reader, New York Times, Mojo, Uncut, Downbeat, Paste, Pitchfork, and on NPR.
Releases
Bill MacKay Foreign Smokes (as BCMC w/ Cooper Crain)
The Swarm
Ripple in High Tide
Sunset Saturn
Bill MacKay Keys (with Nathan Bowles)
Honey Time
Late for your Funeral Again
Dry Rations II
Joy Ride
I See God
Dry Rations I
Dowsing
Truth
The I in Silence
Bill MacKay Scarf
Bill MacKay Stir (w/ Katinka Kleijn)
The Rare Foothold
Hermine
The Hermetic Circle
No One Here is a Stranger
Door to the Magic Theatre
A Series of Doors
Path to the Peak
Bill MacKay Fountain Fire
Birds of May
The Movie House
Man & His Panic
Welcome
Try it On
Arcadia
Dragon Country
Bill MacKay Hypnotic Pulse Of The Reindeer Range (w/ Ryley Walker)
Bill MacKay SpiderBeetleBee (w/ Ryley Walker)
Pretty Weeds Revisited
Lower Chestnut
Naturita
I Heard Them Singing
Stretching My Dollar In Plano
Lonesome Traveler
Dragonfly
Bill MacKay Esker
Twilight
Candy
Clementine Cotton
Persona
Powder Mill Park
Rise
The Hollows
Wail
Scarlet's Return
Bill MacKay Altamira (w/ Darts & Arrows)
No Demons Return
Molasses Tragedy
The Well-Wishers
Carried There & Ponytailed
Look Out
I Won't Forget You
Bill MacKay Land of Plenty (w/ Ryley Walker)
Rickshaw Waltz
Gold Season
Land of Plenty
Promise Me
Blues For Arthur
Silver Cup
Bill MacKay Chatham Park
Gem
Promenade
If It Was Me
The Meadows
Bill MacKay December Concert (w/ Matt Lux)
Black Leaves
Per Ardua Ad Astrum
Wheat & Scythe
Tourniquet For A Season
Bill MacKay Eyes of the Carnival (w/ Darts & Arrows)
Outcry
Frequent Vacation
Mystic
Slipping Through My Fingers
Film Music No. 2
Bill MacKay Bill MacKay and Darts & Arrows
Behind the Summer
Black Leaves
Road to the Seaway
Do Not Follow
Whispers
New Song
Bill MacKay Swim To The River (w/ Broken Things)
Broken Things
1919 Molasses Tragedy
Water's Edge
Keep a Secret
The Reservoir
Bill MacKay Bill MacKay & Sounds of Now
Illumination
Sleepwalking
Idyll
The Bystander
Serpentine