Our favorite six-string shaman is back! Waving his axe of choice, Sir Richard Bishop once again summons forth damnable truth and beauty on an all-new album out September 26: Hillbilly Ragas. The first single, “They Shall Take Up Serpents,” is out today with a new music video by the man himself!

Since the dying days of the 20th century, the composer/player of spirited polytheistic guitar recitals — most recently, 2020's Oneiric Formulary — has worked feverishly to wrench and wrangle all the music that has and can possibly fall out of the guitar from east to west across this great, totally fucked world of ours. With Hillbilly Ragas, Sir Rick stretches his callused hands across the waters to draw diverse musics back to his shack, taking cues from sounds most associated with the "so-called" American Primitive guitar style, as Richard puts it. Take it from him:

"I've always felt that the majority of what is considered to be American Primitive music, while certainly based on historical American musical traditions, never really had any sounds that I personally thought of as being primitive—it always seemed too orderly, too developed, and too safe. Way too safe. I found that playing with a sort of reckless abandon was the best way to remain outside of the usual musical language found in this genre of music, while still being able to establish itself within its framework, through determination and force if nothing else. I had in mind an undiscovered "hillbilly" guitarist who had remained hidden in his own secluded backwoods; one who never heard about any traditional musical styles that he was expected to work within. So what we have here with Hillbilly Ragas are nine improvised pieces for solo acoustic guitar, each one representing a different excursion into the dark woods—the untamed explorations of a musical loner, an outsider, maybe even an undesirable, embodying a peculiar folklore and turning it into sound—creating his own American folk music in the process. He's still out there, fueled by his supernatural surroundings and a fuck-all attitude!”

—Richard Bishop, 2025

Head towards Hillbilly Ragas on September 26, 2025 and see Sir Richard Bishop out in the wild this fall on tour!

Sir Richard Bishop 2025 Tour Dates

Aug. 30 - Portland, OR @ Turn Turn Turn
Sept. 23 - Brookyn, NY @ Union Pool (Record Release Show)
Sept. 26 - Dublin, IE @ BelloBar
Oct. 7 - Newcastle. UK @ The Cumberland Arms
Oct. 9 - Sheffield, UK @ Bishops' House
Oct. 11 - London, UK @ Chats Palace
Oct. 12 - Paris, FR @ Chair De Poule