Will Oldham v Bill Callahan

does callahan use backup singers? oldham has been using them with very excellent results for the last several records. good tact for a marginal singer imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg5VAOG67So

callahan leaves me p cold

love oldham tho

i like silver jews best but i guess thats not the thread

love both these guys, might give a slight edge to callahan but who cares they're both good

OPOs are 'river guard' and 'strange form of life'

Will is a far more interesting artist, his whole career path is pretty amazing. I think he has many more years and surprises left in him.

Oldham by leaps and bounds

wtf @ this... bill callahan's voice these days is beautiful

pretty sure Oldham, Callahan, and Silver Jews accounted for about 50% of my listening in college. Oldham was always the favorite back then but i've since moved over to Callahan. i think that's mostly because Oldham's last few records, while fine, are just kind of... eh. he's fallen into a bit of a groove and it's a bland one. Callahan on the other hand is doing some of the best work of his career. still dig Will. i think he's a wonderful lyricist. but Bill's stuff hits harder these days.

i think will had a great 00s actually

superwolf might be my fav overall thing he ever did, i thought the tortoise things was a pretty successful experiment, really like the letting go, lie down in the light, jeez was the nashville record this decade? can't remember

yeah i agree. those are three of my favorites. the nashville one never grabbed me but it's due for a revisit soon. bill though put out his best album in 2009 and people his vocals and sense of humor (seriously!!) are way offtm.

there are two threads comparing callahan and oldham, but i feel like david berman might be a better comparison for callahan? or like callahan is the intersection between oldham and berman?

ha just looked upthread and saw several silver jews mentions. so much for my "original thought"

been listening to a lot of the drag city weirdo troubadour poets (oldham, callahan, berman) lately. really impressive bodies of work from all of 'em...

a poll of oldham vs callahan vs berman would be impossible to vote on.

kind of feel like berman has an unfair advantage because he really hasn't been as prolific as the other guys....

yeah you are probably right

would be an easy choice of callahan for me

i need to listen to more silver jews though

pitting all three against each other would be like cohen vs. dylan vs. young. i'll let you decide which is which...

I think on ILM berman would win but maybe someone should just do the poll and find out.

Jason Molina would have to be in the poll too

Callahan got to date Chan Marshall, so he gets a few points for that.

and Dame Darcy.

and lisa carver

he was also liz taylor's last husband

and father of ned raggett

(not really)

Jason Molina would have to be in the poll too

Like the dude a lot but he seems...second string?

Anyway that poll would be good

seems like we are afraid to start the poll for some reason

Wire readers might see it?

haven't had the time to read this yet, but:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2014/07/01/songwriters/

I just tried to, yeesh, don't bother.

I thought this was really good - https://pitchfork.com/news/bill-callahan-bonnie-prince-billy-and-matt-sweeney-cover-hank-williams-jr-listen/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIPYAnjnh4M

<3

Had a horrible feeling that they were going to do an ‘ironic‘ version of it...but it’s absolutely wonderful

Bill MacKay is awesome

the guitar sounds incredible on this

Yeah, that's MacKay!

I like his albums with Ryley Walker

so great

it's not really possible to do an "ironic" version of Dan, they are miles ahead of anyone else in irony

I guess I don't know why you'd assume they would do an ironic version to begin with

the song arrived on the same day that tom scharpling promised to dedicate his whole show to telling people why the dan is bad

ugh ffs scharpling

this cover is really excellent btw

I kinda want Callahan and McKay to join Superwolf for the next album.

I think I'd prefer it if Will sang the lead vox? Bill has all the range of a parents-basement Astrud Gilberto fanatic.

MacKay really saves this cover.

(that's not to say that Donald had incredible range, yet he understood the limitations of his gift which he then built songs around, as ambitious as he was at the time)

Weirdly I guess I'm the only one who really doesn't like the guitar on this - it sounds like a mess to me.

I mean some of it sounds good but all the different layers together sound bad

Thanks Simon!

A Bill Callahan playlist in here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012h6l

I must admit I'm putting it here so I can find it again.

oh this is interesting. his mixtape starts at 1:06, by the way

Oldham and Callahan's collaboration is a big disappointment, nothing of what I love about either artist is on display. Everything just sounded very basic rock music. And I was excited to hear it.

I’ve had the opposite reaction! I’m a much bigger fan of Callahan, and this album takes him a bit off of the slow and steady path he had been sticking to. I’ve already listened to it mire than his last couple albums combined. “That Night in Santiago” is a stunner.

"The Wild Kindness" felt like a full-on Drag City tribute to Berman and was especially moving for that reason. I liked "Deacon Blues" as well.

*puts on Roberts Evans voice* Was every tribute paid their due by lifelong indie artists? No. Did I put "Our Anniversary" on my year end list? You bet your ass I did.

Oldham and Callahan's collaboration is a big disappointment, nothing of what I love about either artist is on display. Everything just sounded very basic rock music. And I was excited to hear it.

Wow, I don't hear very much "basic rock music" on this album at all.