Sir Richard Bishop
By Kit Macdonald
Sir Richard Bishop has been a vital force in American experimental music for damn near 50 years, having started out with the Arizona trio Sun City Girls in 1979, a project that won countless admirers and exerts an enduring influence on experimental music to this day. Sun City Girls member Charles Gocher died in 2007, and from then Bishop decided to concentrate on his solo work, which he had been working on as a side-project since the late 1990s.
His solo career has forged a unique language in which hypnotic ragas, free-flowing folk, flamenco echoes, Appalachian melodies and Eastern-inspired fantasies mingle. A virtuoso guitarist, Bishop's playing combines this deeply hewn skill with intuition and spiritual intensity. On this European tour – his first solo acoustic tour in 10 years – Bishop will present a solo acoustic guitar performance focused on new material and improvisation and timed to coincide with the release of his latest LP, Hillbilly Ragas.