Bill Orcutt

Bill Orcutt is one of the most riveting, radical, and prolific guitarists in the world today. With his beard and body hulked over a Fender or a battered acoustic, Orcutt alternately handles his instrument like the keyboard of a computer that is spitting out illogical but fascinating results or a piece of wood that he’s slowly carving into some surrealist sculpture. He is a child of rock ’n’ roll and blues, reared on the classics, but he began to route those early loves in the ’90s through the splenetic post-No Wave madness of his great band Harry Pussy. When Harry Pussy ended, Orcutt largely stepped away from music, a former English lecturer who turned to computer programming.

But since the release of 2009’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Orcutt has been on one of the most monumental and singular streaks of music-making in memory. His solo albums are absorbing, the blues broken and twisted into strange collages that suggest the depth of an Anselm Kiefer work. His frequent collaborations with the likes of Chris Corsano, Tashi Dorji, Okkyung Lee, and Zoh Amba revealed a committed listener and stylist. And with dizzying records made by multitracking meticulous guitar parts, Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet feels like punk rock symphonies to god. Orcutt plays with his new power trio, Orcutt Shelley Miller, at Big Ears 2026. He will also preside solo over his guitar, an hour of improvisation and pure feeling that you did not expect him to find.