Barry Walker Unit - 13th Moon Gravity Well, Portland, Oregon, July 25, 2026

Barry Walker Unit - 13th Moon Gravity Well, Portland, Oregon, July 25, 2026The Pacific Northwest’s finest pedal steel-led free jazz country rock experimental collective is back! The Barry Walker Unit’s debut LP from last year was a complete stunner (you can learn more about it from my conversation with Barry on Aquarium Drunkard) — but it definitely left you wanting more. Well, here’s more: a fantastic recording from just last weekend. Thanks to Michael Pemulis for taping! The Unit this time around features Barry’s Rose City bandmate Ripley Johnson, Dana Buoy (ex-Akron/Family) and Jason Willmon (Mouth Painter), and they sound magnificent throughout these two sets, whether floating into a dream or taking things into wilder territory. On the 18-minute interpretation of Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchidananda,” they do both, as Walker coaxes harp-like cadences out of his pedal steel, the groove wafting behind him like a smoke ring. Barry Says: The sort of poly-cosmic view you have to…