bill callahan (post-smog)

cannot find much or really any discussion of either 'woke on a whaleheart' or 'sometimes i wish i were an eagle.'

i get the distinct feeling that tastemakers have decided he is passé. his lyrics are definitely getting odder, insofar as they seem to alternate absolute limpidity (faith/void) and near-total inscrutability. not obscurantist inscrutability à la dylan, just... elliptical.

but i really like the last record, 'sometimes.' 'whaleheart' is spotty -- the neil hagerty production isn't my favorite.

Yeah, Whaleheart is definitely the Callahan album I listen to the least--you are OTM about the production making Callahan sound like something he's not, all muddled and distracted. I couldn't pick one song off there that I really dig.

Sometimes isn't bad at all. It sounds like a continuation from River. "All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast" is a great tune.

I really, really like both of these albums.

'day' 'diamond dancer' 'a man needs a woman or a man to be a man' are all GRATE - I don't get the whaleheart hate.

Oh yeah, forgot that Diamond Dancer was on Whaleheart. Still definitely better live than not, though.

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is top 3 for 2009 easy for me - I don't think "tastemakers" (who are they?) have decided he's passe so much as you sort of run out of things to say about somebody who reliably writes good, interesting songs. This is kind of a deeper critical problem in my opinion, not an easy one to solve: unless an artist reaches icon status (Dylan, Neil Young) & is thereby afforded automatic coverage by all when they release something, then critics (on the blogs or otherwise) are going to feel at a loss to say much; people don't really do much lyrical analysis, even less melodic/musical analysis since the gonzo sort of how-I-felt-while-listening/synaesthetic-response style of criticism is the overall rule. I am trying not to say anything qualitatively about whether that's good or bad, though yeah, my opinion is that writers like Callahan would be better served by a tendency in critics toward more formal analysis (which needn't be as dry as it sounds) and away from, you know, purple prose tbh

as guilty as the next guy on the Tyranny of Subjective Response obv but that's my opinion on why this guy doing some of the best work of his career can't seem to attract much att'n

I've gone back and forth on this album. I'm fond of "My Friend" and "All Thoughts..." Some of the other song-poems sound melodically uninteresting, and that's when his croak bothers me.

I actually think that formally as a singer he's like leagues ahead of pretty much his entire generation of singer-songwriters

Really like the last two and I Wish We Were An Eagle is prob the better of the two, but not by miles.

It's top 3 for me too. and my most fave cover of teh year too

http://www.jamrecords.co.uk/image/bill_callaghan_sometimes.jpg

ach a lot of "two" and "too" in there. still half asleep

J0hn OTM; I liked Whaleheart and love Eagle (have never really heard much by him before) but if I was still writing I'd not have a clue what to say about him.

"get the distinct feeling that tastemakers have decided he is passé. "

i don't know about the tastemakers but:
1.Eagle is one of 2009 best record (and there arent many great record in 09 so far imo)
2. i think it's his best record to date: the songwriting is a lot more interesting and complex than in the Smog era,his voice sounds better (and different!)than ever with the deep baritone sound, and the production is perfect.

the only problem i have with Eagle, is that sometimes Callahan's irony prevents some of the (potential) emotion impact of the songs.
thats also true for some Will Oldham's songs btw.

i don't think either of these albums are as good as "supper" or "a river...". i wish he hadn't changed his name, maybe the albums would be better.

xpost. i do think his voice continues to improve.

theres a discussion about Eagle here as well:

Classic or Dud: Smog

Sometimes... is definitely one of my albums of the year. Much darker and more cohesive than any of his previous records I feel. Some great moments. I love the slowly revealed sentence in Too Many Birds. I think he's getting better and better. Will Oldham is kind of becoming Woody Allen-esque in terms of quality and quantity!

I love the slowly revealed sentence in Too Many Birds

y'huh, that's converted people i know who never liked smog.

would also be worth doing a s/d on non-lp smog; there's probably only five more songs, but everything he's done outside of the albums is terrific; there's a b-side called taken which is as good as anything on whaleheart (which i like, too - honeymoon child and day, particularly); all the covers he's done in the past few months and the couple that are forthcoming.

my opinion is that writers like Callahan would be better served by a tendency in critics toward more formal analysis (which needn't be as dry as it sounds) and away from, you know, purple prose tbh

i agree entirely (but then, i'm predisposed to agree, having mounted similar arguments elsewhere). i don't think it would be all that hard to do a good, attentive analysis of bill's music, since it's not notably intricate.

i think your analysis of why critics don't have much to say about his new LPs is spot on, as well. there haven't really been any negative reviews of his recent work, just a general sense of, "oh hi here's a new excellent bill callahan record now didja hear about the wavvvvvvves guy throwing a hissy fit?!"

drag city figures may but this idea to rest, but i can see bill gradually gaining more and more of a following and his records selling a bit better (accouting for overall continued drop in record sales) despite relative lack of press. at least, his last show here was sold out.

i still think "supper" might be my favorite record, but the last one is excellent. i like "whaleheart," too, it simply doesn't stick in the mind as much or as long.

still liking A River Ain't Much Too Love best from his (sort of) recent work.

supper is the meisterwerk (oh no: smog discussion). the words are so playful.

If...
If you...
If you could...
If you could only...
If you could only stop...
If you could only stop your...
If you could only stop your heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat...
If you could only stop your heart beat for...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat.

http://www.dragcity.com/system/album_products/images/1606/large.jpg?1263169047

a-comin' in march

live, btw

is it new material?

seems unlikely given that it's live and he just put out an album a few months ago

almost a year ago!

is old; there was an interview with him around the time eagle came out saying he was mixing the thing:

Our Anniversary 7:13
Diamond Dancer 4:00
Bowery 5:59
Held 5:00
Say Valley Maker 6:52
In The Pines 5:51
Cold-Blooded Old Times 5:38
Rock Bottom Riser 7:10
Let Me See The Colts 6:54
The Well 9:05
Bathysphere 5:59

I am a fan of that tracklist.

Also I like how several have two minutes appended to them--broken things with a front of composure stretched to further breaking.

i've seen this dude in concert a dozen times dating back to 1996. he is never less than good. sometimes the long atonal blooze or velvet underground-style raveups are real boring, sometimes they hit the spot.

only two older songs on that list. but happily some stuff from "supper" (my favorite of his LPs).

is this one solo acoustic? don't know how he's been touring recently ... anyway, tracklist looks pretty a+.

nuh uh, will be with band. i wish it was from a little later, since the line up from the last tour were sweet, drove previously kinda stark a river ain't too much to love songs into the ground. think the last line up had a violinist?, and thor drumming, not sure.

i could swap in the pines for river guard or something but yeah it looks good. cover lovely too.

bill is looking sort of beefy lately

http://www.dragcity.com/system/artists/photos/74/large.jpg?1250785302

a bit like aged david carradine no?

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/david-carradine.jpg

or not so aged

best smog look recently was wilderness bill:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3200528911_4dcc5e9ea3.jpg

recent setlists look rad- playing distance

oh god i LOVE distance.

"how can something be in any empty box?"

love this dude so much. hilarious.

If...
If you...
If you could...
If you could only...
If you could only stop...
If you could only stop your...
If you could only stop your heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat...
If you could only stop your heart beat for...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat.

― jed_, Sunday, January 10, 2010 9:23 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

otm

Gil Scott-Heron covers I'm New Here. i don't know what to make of it but it is... something.

http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/tu/tu100308gil_scott-heron_im_n?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:%20kcrw/tu%20%28Today%27s%20Top%20Tune%29&utm_term=Todays%20Top%20Tune

"how can something be in any empty box?"

love this dude so much. hilarious.

lyrics on supper are so sharp and tense and funny and kinda hot throughout

All this talk about Supper makes me want to check it out. It may be the only Smog record I don't own. Just haven't got around to it. My favorite Callahan/Smog record is the one I heard first - Knock Knock.

supper is my fave; i am not a big listmaker but it's one of my favourite things that existed in the last ten years.

knock knock is kinda uneven to me; some of the best songs are on there but the slow loren connors jam and the weird no dancing upbeat stuff make it kind of too broad i think.

yeah, the lyrics from supper are fantastic. probably my favorite album as well.

a friend of mine at the time (who was a big smog fan) felt that he was moving into a too-elliptical and -obscurantist direction, but i actually don't think this is the case w/ supper. my friend cited the song butterflies drowned in wine. but that's a really easy to understand and evocative and inventive mashup of two metaphors (butterflies in the stomach/drowning your troubles in alcohol). i think in the last two albums he can maybe be accused of being opaque but i still love him.

i know it's a cliche but i can't think of a better contemporary lyricist. the guy from drive-by truckers is pretty good though their music isn't particular to my tastes.

Robert Forster's better with tunes.

And he's a Callahan fan too.

you know, i haven't heard any of forster's recent (meaning past 15 years?) stuff. i'm not a huge go-betweens fan though i do like them. always found something a little too..emphatic around the edges about them for my taste. don't know if i could explain it better. both forster and mcclennan obviously wrote some deathless songs.

not sure how to express this, but although i actually think bill's more of a melodist than he often gets credit for being, i don't think the charm of music is principally about novel or tricky 'tunes'. i mean, the 'hooks' in his songs are often in his wry, often very very funny delivery. he tends to use variations on sort of stock, public-domain-type melodies; and typically his inventiveness comes in terms of the way he varies or suspends or elongates the phrasing. and sometimes in terms of his play with the larger form of the song.

btw thanks for that link! that's one of the best reviews of any of bill's albums i've read.

i love "supper" but my favourites of recent albums are this new one and "a river...". it's great that people claim any of the albums to be their favourites but still love another five so much that they can't really decide. i'd be surprised if someone told me "woke on a waleheart" or "rain on lens" were their faves but, unlike other artists, i'd listen again to try and work out why they liked them so much.. and i'd probably end up loving them too.

i agree that he's the best lyricist working now (that i'm aware of) and by some distance.

hm "distance", that's some track.

although as a title "rain on lens" is unbeatable. it's incredibly suggestive.

I did like Callahan's 2009 a lot, btw.

recently i did some design work in the home of a slightly oder english lit academic. on the day i was finishing off i was playing "a river..." and she came rushing through from the next room, where she had been working, to ask me what it was. now she's a bill callahan stan and sent me a text last week saying that she's given up smoking and that the thing that calmed her during a hectic day was the knowledge that she could listen to "too many birds" when her last student had left.

older not odder

although perhaps she is slightly odder now that she's a bill callahan junkie?

i'd say that's a definite.

That Forster review is the best thing I've read on the album.

she got me back by making me read Henry James (unrelated to the smog incident and obviously the other end of the style scale) and now i'm (four books in) a Henry James stan.

xpost was just reading that review. it's great.

Forster touches on it in his review and it always stuns me how Bill can make a simple lyric so evocative.

"i started running/ and the concrete turned to sand"

she got me back by making me read Henry James (unrelated to the smog incident and obviously the other end of the style scale) and now i'm (four books in) a Henry James stan.

The Spoils of Callahan

i just finished that one, my favourite so far.

it always stuns me how Bill can make a simple lyric so evocative

Guns or fireworks are popping
Down in the town
A woman is running
A man jumps up and down
...
I slide in the front seat
The drivers side
To hotwire and hightail crosses my mind
But still in the driveway
Fixed like the stars

I flip on the headlights
And go back inside
The climates controlled
While the battery dies

"clipping the wings of your morning flight"

that line makes me swoon.

The night will end in
Some form of excess
Pants around ankles
Too weak to fully undress

Dude is playing two shows at the Hideout (a very intimate venue) in April. Tickets are $20 (benefit show) and I have no extra money at all right now but I might have to go anyways.

ooh, what HJ have you been reading jed?

oh snap i might have to make it for those shows. wish they were on my spring break.

Ward - "Washington Square", "The Aspern Papers", "Turn of the Screw", "The Spoils of Poynton" and i'm currently on "The Portrait of A Lady" as well as just having bought the fairly large (and pricy, for a paperback) Penguin "Selected Tales" this looks great but I'm slightly put off by the miniscule type - 600 pages of miniscule type.

huh?

"Hop on Pop"

amst, i was answering wards q but i admit it's a strange place to be talking about h. james!

I may be the biggest Callahan fan here, but after three passes, I still think this live album is bland as bread.

Just ordered his book.

Will report back.

I haven't listened to the live album much either. I like some of the new arrangements, mainly of the songs from Woke on a Whaleheart, because that's the only recent album where I'm not a fan of how the album sounds.

I'm a big fan of pretty much everything he did as Smog, but mostly it's been zzzzzzzzzzz since Dongs of Sevotion...

Nah. A River Ain't Too Much to Love and Sometime I Wish We Were an Eagle are two of his best imo.

the book is real good, i think. i thought he might have some problems maintaining the whole grizzled, laconic thing through a whole narrative, but nuh uh. he makes such great use of the elliptical nature of a one-sided epistolary novel, too; "i don't think there is such a thing as ceiling wax".

also you crazy if you've been tuned out since dongs. the lps are way more like albums, since, and i'd put everything bar maybe whaleheart above DOS.

(but yeah the live record just doesn't sound right, bar the well, which sucks because he can be alternately entrancing & rollicking, live).

man is p much the only current singer songwriter i listen to

you crazy if you've been tuned out since dongs

Not really tuned out -- I've heard all the recent albums, just haven't enjoyed much of it lately.

I've also seen him live a few times in Austin, his longtime residence, and think he's a bore live. Sorry...

Nah. A River Ain't Too Much to Love and Sometime I Wish We Were an Eagle are two of his best imo.

― circa1916, Tuesday, August 24, 2010 2:45 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

def. agree with this

^^^^^

thirded.

live album is OK. good, not great. i know i'm a douche for saying this, but i have live shows i got from the internets that are even better.

If...
If you...
If you could...
If you could only...
If you could only stop...
If you could only stop your...
If you could only stop your heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat...
If you could only stop your heart beat for...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat.

― jed_, Sunday, January 10, 2010 9:23 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, March 9, 2010 7:55 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

― jed_, Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:30 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

OTM.

I listen to Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle a lot. It's amazing. DAMN the tastemakers and the cannibals

:-)

I've also seen him live a few times in Austin, his longtime residence, and think he's a bore live. Sorry...

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, August 24, 2010 3:52 PM Bookmark

presumptuous apologies...

I saw him at the Starry Plough in Berkeley with ILX poster AKM and he was pretty great, I thought. He has a presence. Also he came and played in the middle of the crowd for the encore.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/callahanposter.jpg

http://pitchfork.com/news/41420-bill-callahan-announces-new-album/

hoo-rah

fantastic. i wasn't expecting something so soon.

If...
If you...
If you could...
If you could only...
If you could only stop...
If you could only stop your...
If you could only stop your heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat...
If you could only stop your heart beat for...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart...
If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat.

― jed_, Sunday, January 10, 2010 9:23 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, March 9, 2010 7:55 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

― jed_, Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:30 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

OTM.

I listen to Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle a lot. It's amazing. DAMN the tastemakers and the cannibals

― Edgware Wolf in London (admrl), Saturday, September 25, 2010 6:22 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark

otm

otm

DAMN the tastemakers and the cannibals

Bill Callahan
Apocalypse PRE-ORDER

APRIL 19TH RELEASE DATE
Callahan is back! Essentially an ensemble recorded live in the studio, Callahan's Apocalypse is the corpus delecti. Something happened here! If tape is like meat, this record is the whole hog! Callahan, riding on the back of his band, corrals them all and guides them single-handedly through the valley with love and ferocity. This record makes us wonder what has really happened in the last 100 years, and what will happen in the next 10. The soul of your country called and left you a message.

pre-order where?

what the

there is a thread for this album iirc

i think i got that from an insound email.

show last night was amazing. backed up by just a drummer and a guitarist, which i was a little concerned about, but it worked well on pretty much every song ("eid ma clack shaw" was the only one where the arrangement didn't work for me, but it might have also been a sound issue). the one-two punch of "america!" and "our anniversary" was especially devastating. it seems like he's not interested in playing old stuff at all, i think "our anniversary" was the oldest song in the main set, though he begrudgingly played "the river guard" and "bathysphere" as encores (he asked for requests, everyone was yelling out songs, he said "i'm glad you guys don't write the setlist.")

sometimes i read bits of the novel that crop up somewhere online or whatever & they totally crack me up or floor me:

You are the reason I get out of bed. To tell you that I have gotten out of bed.

i have a recording of a reading from it that's incredibly compelling, sorta someway between what you get from reading it and the very tense, charged, unfurling kinda quality that you get from seeing him sing. & because i read it when it came out - and it has that kinda woolf-ish flow of just going through your head to serve the purpose of just momentarily passing through you & leaving you slightly adjusted by exposure - i've forgotten most all of what is said in the book, remembering just the mood and tone of it. and so it's striking anew to hear the lines read aloud. i will probably retrieve my copy and read it again & like it more, i think. also maybe i will put my copy in the bathroom (huge compliment, setting aside).

the last record is still doing it for me, also. i think the thing that's appealing about baby's breath, particularly in reference to the v speculatively biographical abortion reading of it that people discuss, is that it gives you a set of circumstances to assume that it's based on, and then use as a basis to see his transformation of the facts of - turning the thing into an extended gardening metaphor and seeing the craft in being able to do so. i feel bad for trampling into that kind of intense fan reading, but he is the only thing that i feel that awed by as to want to tear apart in search of better understanding.

you know that baby's breath is a flower though (the american name for Gypsophelia).

where did you get the recording of the reading, schlump?

as an aside i'll say that i've done a 180 on Apocalypse and now think it may be his best record.

did not know, thanks for that. adding that to my case files.

reading at: http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/talk-me/2011/feb/07/talk-me-bill-callahans-letters-emma-bowlcut/
there's this v amusing q & a, and i sort of set aside the reading for later; it popped up on my headphones unexpectedly & caught me at this appropriately blank, receptive, zoned-out moment as i was leaving work a few weeks back, it's really lovely to listen to , though i was more primed then than i usually might be to listen to an extended reading of letters, etc.

i'm v fond of the new one, though need to spend more time with the second side. i don't think i'd appreciated how distinct his last five years (the a river/bill stuff) have been from what came before, until this one compounded it. like i was listening back to supper, & then to the last one - i always loved truth serum so much, because it's so well plotted and clever & amusing, but even so i hear it and think that he wouldn't try that shit now - there's an appeal to it that he seems to be sort of beyond, a maturity now that comes through a confident breadth and a way with these elliptical stories (which i guess he was doing back then, too).

his contribution to the Chris Knox compilation 'Stroke' just came up on iTunes--stunning.

Thanks for this. Illuminating. Bill reads GQ! :)

guys in shiny suits

oh my he's a very bad reader alouder.

but thanks schlump.

ha! that's funny, i didn't think so. i guess he inflects the same way, each line, with that wavering flick.

Looking forward to this reading, thanks!

I think there was talk about the recent shows on a different thread but I'll post this link to a great boot from the Bowery show here anyway...

http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=6622

Apocalypse is fantastically good! A bit slept on?

I'm listening to "Baby's Breath" in your honor.

anticipate APOCALYPSE, the new bill callahan record

"I've taken the edge off so many times

[pause]

I'm round"

that's from "Fools Lament" from the Rock Bottom Riser EP - a somewhat lost classic track.

"My comeuppance, I embrace
Like a monkey dressed just like me"

A bit slept on?

feel like i do this with most of his stuff. listen to it on release and think it's ok and then 6 months to a year later it finally hits.

Playing at Lincoln Center!

Bill Callahan
Wednesday, February 8 at 8:30

He is one of the greatest lyricists of our time and a captivating performer, too, with a dry, sonorous baritone and driving, subtle guitar chords that make for a towering presence both in the studio and on stage. Callahan, who recorded for decades under the name Smog, comes to our stage to celebrate his acclaimed 2011 release, Apocalypse.
http://www.americansongbook.org/index.php/as-2012-bill-callahan

One of my favourite concerts ever.

Who has read "Letters To Emma Bowlcut"?

I read it a few months back, lent my copy out, haven't seen it since.

How was it?

I don't remember it all that clearly which I guess is about the clearest thing I can say. I enjoyed it, found it very funny in that particular dry, dark and strange way Callahan makes me smirk. It's very weird, (set slightly in the future I think, and it's epistolary which means most of the details are left for the reader to fill in for themselves). I enjoyed it and it's a very very quick read. Actually thinking about it makes me want to go back nd try it again.

i love Apocalypse, and just recently started listening to Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle. I like his Smog material as well, but his recent stuff is so, so good.

this is lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo0FSl3wOU4

via permanent smile:

[Austin Bat Cave] are hosting a Songwriting Workshop featuring Bill Callahan, and you are invited! Head over to our Workshop Sign-Up page and register your child for the three-hour songwriting workshop, which will take place on July 14th, from 1pm to 4pm, at the Austin Bat Cave, located at 1807 W 11th Street. It will be a fun, engaging writing workshop that will tackle songwriting and putting lyrics to music, the different ways a song can tell a story, the different stories that songs can tell. We’re super-excited to be working with a fabulous and highly-regarded musician such as Bill Callahan.

really enjoyed his show on the current tour. sort of extended, spacey versions of recentish songs. it was just bill plus a guitar player and a bass player and had a great quiet-but-intense feel.

yes!
Dream River coming out Spet. 17

1. "The Sing"
2. "Javelin Unlanding"
3. "Small Plane"
4. "Spring "
5. "Ride My Arrow"
6. "Summer Painter"
7. "Seagull"
8. "Winter Road"

i am psyched for the possibility of a bill callahan song called "javelin unlanding"

yesssss

"easily the most sensual and soulful of Callahan's career"

those are some delightful song titles. "The Sing", "Small Plane", "Spring". can't wait for this.

look forward to everything this dude does

except that coffee-table book, that is embarrassing

tour documentary is "available" now btw

he really was pretty amazing during that last tour, kind of hope he keeps that band together.

ha, i'd really like that photo book

http://zero1magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/165925_537436852963717_1725660117_n.jpg

i actually was not keen on the doc, like there is something ill fitting about trying to get a p reserved guy to talk about stuff because what he's prepared to give up is not really so absorbing. it shoulda been a silent.

tyler otm re: his last group. he toured recently w/the same guitar player, minus neal morgan drumming but plus a bass player. he's playing electric guitar again, which is exciting for me.

that drummer was amazing though

http://www.dragcity.com/products/i-drive-a-valence

was hoping this was a new album bump!

Bill Callahan and Paul Ryan's creative partnership comes to Vivid Sydney stage

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/bill-callahan-and-paul-ryans-creative-partnership-comes-to-vivid-sydney-stage-20150526-gh9kdo.html#ixzz3iWpLpsZU

Callahan, whose style has been compared to that of Leonard Cohen, came across Ryan's work when the painter sent his record company an email asking for permission to use his music in a documentary film about his art practice. Callahan said he would give permission if Ryan sent an artwork he could use on his next album cover, Apocalypse. He loved it so much, he asked Ryan for paintings for his next releases, Dream River and Have Fun With God.

from back in may but i hadn't read much about before about their connection

Fred Neil reminds me of him and vice versa.

i saw him play last night. it was not the best bill callahan show i've seen (there was no drummer and instead he played this annoying foot tambourine thing through all of the songs) but i'm glad he's still playing and touring with matt kinsey. that guy is a great guitarist and his playing adds a lot to the songs on the last couple of albums.

yea i hope he keeps kinsey around for a while

i am ready for new callahan music though. dream river was three years ago exactly

did he play any new music NA?

he only played one song I didn't know but it sounded like it could have been a cover or a traditional song? something about how everyone has to walk this road alone, then every verse substituting my father has to walk this road alone, my mother, etc. before returning to everyone. thought it could be a cover bc it was more direct/simple than his recent songs. unfortunately i don't remember the lyrics accurately enough to search.

oh he played his grateful dead cover "easy wind" also

Have Fun With God is a fantastic record, massively slept on

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvy5kHSgDB1/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=con3os1p3w6z

I can only assume they patched things up, given that they would later collaborate, but yeah, that's funny.

https://pitchfork.com/news/bill-callahan-announces-new-album-shepherd-in-a-sheepskin-vest/

20 tracks!

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5cc7d5a0fa43fdd23e066fe0/master/pass/DC747_BillCallahan_ShepherdInASV_MINI.jpg

not crazy about this cover

Thread updates you've been hoping for! I like the cover ok, seems Callahanesque enough.

Great news!

i wonder if it's a double album or shorter songs

seems to be shorter songs ... here's drag city's writeup

Rejoice! Bill Callahan's late-phase hot streak continues with his first record since 2013, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest.

After Dream River, Bill's life went through some changes. Good changes - marriage and a kid - but afterwards, it was suddenly harder for him to find the place where the songs came, to make him and these new experiences over again into something to sing. His songs have always been elusive, landing lightly between character study and autobiography, as the singer-songwriter often does. This felt different, though. After 20 years of putting music first, he wasn't prepared to go away from it completely. Or perhaps, after all the time, the obvious needs to be made just a little more explicit?

First, it's a different kind of record. Bill's now writing from somewhere beyond his Eagle-Apocalypse-River headspace, and Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest is very much its own beast. The songs are, by and large, shorter, and there are more of them. It took almost all of the previous three albums to add up to that many. Plus, twenty's a lot of songs! But again, it goes a lot deeper than that.

When you finally listen to Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest, a feeling of totality, of completeness, will steal over you, like a thief in broad daylight. Of course it will- you'll be listening to a new Bill Callahan record! The first one in almost six years! What more do you need to complete you? Pre-order your copy for June 14th and get your tickets for his upcoming US/European tour!

TRACK LISTING:

1. Shepherd's Welcome
2. Black Dog on the Beach
3. Angela
4. The Ballad of The Hulk
5. Writing
6. Morning is My Godmother
7. 747
8. Watch Me Get Married
9. Young Icarus
10. Released
11. What Comes After Certainty
12. Confederate Jasmine
13. Call Me Anything
14. Son of the Sea
15. Camels
16. Circles
17. When We Let Go
18. Lonesome Valley
19. Tugboats and Tumbleweeds
20. The Beast

10-01 Edinburgh, England - Usher Hall

fuck off!

lol

hahaha take it up with the crack team at conde nast

shorter songs is a promising development

i wonder if it's a double album or shorter songs

― na (NA), Thursday, May 2, 2019 7:38 AM (fifty-five minutes ago)

double album dropping june 14.

— Bill Callahan (@BillCallaman) May 2, 2019

so sounds like relatively shorter songs but not like 1-2 minute songs

lol it’s true the drag city site has UK
xp

18. Lonesome Valley

This is probably a studio version of Woody Guthrie's 'Lonesome Valley', which he's been playing live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ49BRoV5WI

song lengths here https://www.dragcity.com/products/shepherd-in-a-sheepskin-vest

strange reading BC use the word "dropping" to describe an album release

that said, looking forward to this

That's an interesting chord sub (rel minor?) in that cover.

https://pitchfork.com/features/profile/bill-callahan-shepherd-in-a-sheepskin-vest-interview/

this (Shepherd) feels like the best thing he's done since Woke on a Whaleheart. after Dream River (bland as) i'd lost all enthusiasm for S'Bill Call-ogg'han. Shepherd's an excellent recording, the playing is loose and colorful (variety of instrumentation), and it's got great feel. this has got to be the most playful/relaxed Callahan record, ever. still rooting for Berman, but new smog is undeniably good

its excellent and a nice change of pace from the last 2.

Have been wondering what Bill's 90s electric guitar was for over 20 years now - anyone know? It got stolen after Dongs Of Sevotion - he's playing it on the front cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqT2djn-m2Q&t=3m56s

Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqT2djn-m2Q

I was pretty surprised at the absence of "Shepard" from most year end lists (including ILM). Maybe everyone only had room for one Drag City baritone on their 2019 ballot, and Berman's sadness was more compelling than Callahan's happiness?

as a Calla-fan I found it pretty boring

Been a fan for a long time, and I think it's a great album.

i'm not sure what that guitar is! for a second i thought it was a parker fly but i'm guessing it's some random cheap guitar

I've discovered it's a Fender Performer from 1985/86.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Performer

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--VJL4Jfb9--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_90,w_620/v1525635683/pqz2cgkf6ezjmlks0uaa.jpg

I remember he said in an interview he had used it on every album up to Dongs. I kind of want one now.

Bill Callahan has announced the release of new album Gold Record, his first since last year's Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest.

The album, Callahan's seventh since abandoning the Smog moniker, and eighteenth in total, will be released on September 4 via Drag City.

One single from the record will be released every Monday between now and the album's release date.

01 Pigeons
02 Another Song
03 35
04 Protest Song
05 The Mackenzies
06 Let’s Move to the Country
07 Breakfast
08 Cowboy
09 Ry Cooder
10 As I Wander

new album "gold record" coming in september: https://exclaim.ca/music/article/bill_callahan_returns_with_new_lp_gold_record

has a new version of let's move to the country on it
xpost

you beat me by 39 seconds
excited for this even though i could never get into shepherd in a sheepskin vest

Always happy for new Callahan. I liked Shepherd okay, but I was a little baffled about that particular one being the one to gain wider traction, since I found it to be second-tier among his "Bill Callahan" records.

dear lord that cover art

lol thought that was a pt cruiser for a second

i need to go back to SIASV but i think it was just too long and too pastoral for me

so i'm encouraged by this being a 10-track album

agreed on both counts

Great news! I love Shepherd personally, can’t wait to hear what he comes up with next.

That cover though. It’s so bad it has to be intentional :)

i need to go back to SIASV but i think it was just too long and too pastoral for me

idk, it's an impression based on a memory of something i haven't listened to in about a year so probably not the right description. i remember it being pleasant but not connecting with it. some overwritten songs, some arranagements i didn't care for? who knows. like i said i need to go back to it.

he really has a lot of ugly album covers.

Too ‘happy’, perhaps?

yes, I'm glad he's happy but that record was terrible. i've no interest in happy BC.

I'll listen to this to hear the new version of let's move to the country.

I allowed him one happy record, and genuinely think it’s good, but yeah happy isn’t his raison d’etre

has a new version of let's move to the country on it

maybe he ought to get into the deal of self-covering sad songs to flip them, like will oldham

i listened to some of shepherd this afternoon. it doesn't bother me that it's happy. i think it's mostly the song structures - instead of verses and choruses, a lot of the songs are strings of parts that don't repeat. this isn't inherently bad, but combined with the arrangements, it's further down what i'll call a "jazz-folk" road (probably not the best descriptor) that i don't really care for. and since there are so many songs, not having many real choruses makes for a long album with few parts that stick in my head. it feels part of a trend from apocalypse to dream river to shepherd, with my enjoyment declining with each album. but i still love BC and hold out hope for GOLD RECORD.

shepherd was also hurt by not having matt kinsey shredding over it

and again i only listened to maybe 1/4 of the album so it's likely i'm misremembering it as a whole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQp3nZe6kI4&

Like that a lot, but I fear that if the whole album is at that tempo, it will struggle to hold my attention much like the last one did.

props for shoehorning "plenipotentiary" in there

I laughed at both the bracketing quotes

I could be cool w/ a whole album at this tempo, I think I've drifted away for the last couple records for the reasons NA states above...the structures and melodic lacking /geir

i liked this song more than anything i can remember from shepherd. i think i never listened to the whole thing which is kinda crazy given how much i like so many of his records.
should i know/ expect some context for the johnny cash thing at the beginning?

he really has a lot of ugly album covers.

Yeah what was he thinking with that Apocalypse cover

https://i.imgur.com/WQ5xFN8.jpg

Psyched about the new album, love the song Pigeons! Not loving Shepherd as much as I should, feel kinda weird and guilty about it. Hmm

I love the "Sometimes ..." artwork and the cat/power "Knock Knock" image makes me chuckle. But, yeah.

Welcome back Rizzx!

I like Pigeons a lot, it's very much in the same vein as Shepherd tbf. I'm surprised so many of you didn't get into Shepherd. It's long but bobs by so nicely.

Dream River + the dub versions (especially the dub verions) have been my lockdown jam.

Hey thanks Bateau!

Sadly, the new song is more of the same, and not in a good way. It's like he is writing the same song, with the same arrangements over and over again..

More attention to interesting melodies at least will be welcome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3rR3JOVfQ

why can't the album cover art be one of these cool drawings in the videos ?

nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2_T4CMCmXs

wow this is one i really like !

love the drawing, too.

i don't want to wait until september

here's another song. not to be confused with 'Another Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOhdwYC678Q

i'm really just in the mood for these new songs sort of all the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc5mU2-sKcU

Love this one.

I hear you Budo, it's a balm.

I'm holding off on repeat listens to these cuz I want the album to work on me as a whole....but man every one of these on first listen is so good

b callahan's voice is like a strong, perfume-y (flavored) sort of maple syrup.. if it's agreeable, then great. if not, then it's a bit much. his expressive range always feels measured, even when the rest of the instrumentation is (going for) loose and ramschacke. it's not entirely unlike d sylvian's vocals on manafon, or blemish

The Mackenzies is beautiful.

Just like 5 loaded storylines falling into each other. No direct, sensible route through. And it’s perfectly OK.

"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash"

It's a gift to have you back with a new album, Bill <3

Uhhh, Mr. Cooder

on first listen i like it more than shepherd in a sheepskin vest but less than most of his other albums. maybe it'll grow on me.

"Pigeons" and "The Mackenzies" feel like top tier BC to me

Listening to this walking the dog tonight and could not stop laughing at Protest Song. That is a funny song. I am not sure how to articulate this but I love how Bill is not afraid to commit to song concept. He has so many subtle songs, many oblique, but most of his albums have one or two peppered in that, while they can be just as profound, also have this air of novelty to them.

step aside son you’re gonna get hoit

I guess as close as he’ll ever get to chooglin’

I can't follow any of these stories, they go in one ear and out the other and I'm left wondering what each song is about. I got The Mackenzies but didn't like it much, some good points though. I think I know what he's trying to do (maybe) but can't appreciate it at all.

Pigeons is a pretty straightforward story

the new one has this awkward feeling of the music being built around the structure of the lyrics, to the extent that the songs don't really flow or even feel like proper songs sometimes

I like this album and think "Breakfast" the keeper.

has this awkward feeling of the music being built around the structure of the lyrics, to the extent that the songs don't really flow or even feel like proper songs sometimes

― na (NA), Wednesday, September 9, 2020 1:15 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is otm and exactly how I feel about the last few albums

So, Bill & Will re-recorded "Our Anniversary" with Todd Rittman (US Maple/Dead Rider) plopping down some big beefy chunky riffs all over it, and then Jim White (played drums on the original, I just learned) joins John C. Reilly and Tim Heidecker to record their reactions. Not clear if John & Tim had heard it before, but the original is my favorite Smog song and so my reaction was a lot more similar to Jim's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYxKpXIh1k

Yeah weird.

Seems not really like a cover but the just the lyrics grafted onto something entirely different? On the one hand I like the idea of these two really going for it and Will really reaching (!) on the vocal...on the other its missing that circularity that makes the orig.

...so amazing^

Maybe would dig more if I wasn’t trying to get the same feels

My sentimonies exactly, this is an entirely different song, lyrics do not a song make, but dang is Will ever belting em, whatever this is. And on second listen I would like to retract beefy and chunky and replace it with harmonically crunchy, that's really more Todd.

god love him but Tim and his guitar face :/

Rittman's feel for getting that Crazy Horse sound out of the band is awesome but the lyrics feel like an afterthought -- like nobody wanted to write new lyrics so they just sang "Our Anniversary," or noticed at some point that the phrases could fit into the jam and did that instead of finding what other story the music might want to tell. One of my favorite Smog tunes in the original, dig the jam they're doing here but as Hadrian says it doesn't really evoke the mood the (excellent) lyrics do

I'm just happy to see John C Reilly jamming out to one of the greatest American rock guitarists of all time

This may be one of Will's finest vocal performances, the most range I've ever heard him reach for.

god love him but Tim and his guitar face :/

― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, December 8, 2020 7:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Tim is a bit over earnest as a musician and music lover, which is an interesting stark contrast against his persona in regards to comedy. I think he's been a little wrapped up in feeling like a Real Indie Rockstar this past year especially, but I don't fault him! Glad he's having so much fun.

haha yeah heidecker is definitely "you guys looked like you were having fun up there"

During the verses Will adopts an almost Robert Plant ca. "Kashmir" tone.

didn't even realize he had a new one out today. i'll give it a shot but i haven't really connected with anything past "dream river" (maybe a me problem)

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/62fa6349ecee23939248fbd4/master/w_1600,c_limit/Bill-Callahan.jpg

pretty awful album cover, though that's in character at this point

it's with jim white--big plus in my book

this is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECckgYq1Qs4

sound in video is bad but... can't wait to see this show!

Went to see him in Bristol on Tuesday. Fantastic even though he only played three songs I recognised (don't have either of his latest two albums yet). Saxophonist was a great addition and Bill's between song banter has improved since I saw him last (in '94)!

The new live album, Resuscitate!, is phenomenal.

This lineup!

"Callahan comes alive in Chicago, with Jim White, Matt Kinsey and special guests Nick Mazzarella, Pascal Kerong'A, Nathaniel Ballinger and Natural Information Society’s Joshua Abrams & Lisa Alvarado."

Yeah it rips

the version of "Drover" on this, wow

Has he ever released music that grooves like this before? It’s fantastic, love the interweaving lead guitar and sax riffs