Velour

Solo acoustic guitarists don’t often make music easily classified as “sweeping” or “epic,” but Kaki King has never been just a guitarist. On her sixth album Glow, the virtuoso excels at pairing the perfect pieces – tapped percussion, shakers – to finish her puzzle. While her immaculately picked guitar remains the centerpiece, she’s creating immersive, organic and even cinematic compositions instead of soloing endlessly. King can play a hushed lullaby, then make her acoustic howl; imagine John Butler’s “Ocean” split into 12 songs. On “Bowen Island,” her guitar is a
wind chime, chaotic but perfectly in time. On “Streetlight in the Egg,” it’s a battering ram. And she’s smart enough to let it just be rhythm on the opener “Great Round Burn” and let a tornado of strings tear up the place.