Who is bill callahan

In this way, the song keeps opening up, getting bigger, pulling more voices into the lonesome fold. He was often accompanied by the guitarist Lesley Riddle, a kind of savant when it came to remembering melodies.

Allen, C. Ware, and L. Banks sings the backing harmonies; her voice is rich and gentle. I tried to help her and comfort her, but, essentially, she had to go through that herself, even though I was there.

While life can be solitary and confounding, we still share the burden of reasoning through it. By Sasha Frere-Jones. By Hua Hsu. Published: 14 Jun Bill Callahan: 'I can't die — life is too good, it can't end'. Published: 13 Jun Published: 3 Jun End of the Road review — irony versus revolution in majestic musical battle 5 out of 5 stars. Published: 4 Sep Bill Callahan review — intense, spellbinding singer at his deadpan best 5 out of 5 stars.

Bill Callahan review — from cult figure to force of nature 5 out of 5 stars. The hypnotic singer-songwriter formerly known as Smog strips his mainly old songs back to their bare bones. Published: 7 May Five decades since Gram Parsons pioneered an alternative strand of experimental Americana, the genre is thriving with a new generation of artists such as Steve Gunn and William Tyler inspired by its loose spirit.

Published: 28 Jul Bill Callahan review — Americana meets Australiana in light and shade show 4 out of 5 stars. Two years later, he took another leap forward with 's Red Apple Falls, which added folk and country influences that complemented his increasingly thoughtful songwriting. Callahan's music became more meditative on 's Dongs of Sevotion and the following year's hypnotic Rain on Lens, for which he changed his project's name to Smog.

In , Callahan began releasing his music and other projects under his own name. That year's Diamond Dancer EP and full-length Woke on a Whaleheart both mixed the reflective, largely acoustic sound of later Smog albums with gospel, soul, and pop elements, and boasted arrangements by Royal Trux's Neil Hagerty.

The live album Rough Travel for a Rare Thing, which captured a show in Melbourne, Australia, arrived in March ; in July, Callahan issued his page "epistolary novelette" Letters to Emma Bowlcut, comprised of 62 letters from a nameless protagonist to a woman he saw at a party. He reunited with Congleton and Beattie for 's Apocalypse, a more up-tempo collection of seven country- and blues-inspired rock tunes that recalled some of his edgier work with Smog.

In January , The Life and Times of William Callahan, a book of photographs by Canadian photographer Chris Taylor, was published; that September, Callahan issued Dream River, an album of gentle songs to listen to at the end of the day. Also in , Callahan published I Drive a Valence, a collection of his drawings and lyrics from his entire career, and he married Banks.