bill callahan (post-smog)

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.