INTERVIEWSStream William Tyler of Lambchop's Full, Hypnotic 'Impossible Truth'

March 4 2013, 11:03 AM ET
by Kyle McGovern

Hear guitarist's second solo LP (and Merge debut) in its entirety, two weeks before its March 19 release

For the moment, William Tyler is preoccupied with geography. Save for one, every single song title on the Nashville-based guitar maestro's upcoming second album, Impossible Truth (out March 19 on Merge), references a location, either surreal ("Cadillac Desert"), psychic ("We Can't Go Home Again"), or communal ("The World Set Free").

In a recent teaser video for his forthcoming sophomore effort, Tyler shared some of the ideas and inspirations that wandered through his mind while he crafted the follow-up to his 2010 debut, Behold the Spirit. "Our country, like any other country, is an imagined community, a country of illusion," he said, after describing nightmares of a Ronald Reagan-hosted end-of-the-world party. "We've mutually agreed upon terms of geography, history, and identity, yet those can change. Just ask a ghost town, or a river that's been diverted, or a holder of an East German passport."

The Best New Artist alum's new instrumental effort feels just as elusive, if not transcendent. Painting a layered and hazy, John Fahey-indebted landscape, the Lambchop and Silver Jews associate comes across as travel-weary cartographer and six-string virtuoso all at once.

08:55William Tyler — Country of Illusion
06:19William Tyler — Geography of Nowhere
06:34William Tyler — Cadillac Desert
06:15William Tyler — We Can't Go Home Again
05:52William Tyler — A Portrait of Sarah
04:24William Tyler — Hotel Catatonia
05:13William Tyler — Last Residents of Westfall
10:12William Tyler — The World Set Free