bill callahan (post-smog)

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