Every Monday for the last ten weeks, Bill Callahan has steadily been rolling out the for his new LP Gold Record. One by one, Bill gave listeners the chance to really connect with each intimate song, many of these songs were recorded in one take.
Less than a year ago, Callahan released his 20-song double LP Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest. This had been Callahan’s first LP in close to five years and it was masterfully executed. Bill Callahan has always played the role of the lonely existentially plagued cowboy sitting on his horse staring at the stream asking why a “tree bends in the wind”. Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest was in some ways change of a pace, or proof that his character is dynamic—On Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest Callahan celebrated the quiet beauties of domestic life. In Gold Record, Callahan explores similar scenes and themes—breakfast, bedrooms, books, always cowboys, while also taking on the roles of different characters throughout the LP. He takes on an active role as a storyteller, his voice seemingly deeper and wiser, Bill Callahan invites us to sit on the ground crisscross apple sauce around a campfire while he mesmerizes us with his deep lulling voice.
Gold Record begins with “Pigeons”, where Callahan writes from the perspective of a wedding limo driver picking up a freshly married couple and taking them to a “fancy dancy boutique hotel” while offering them marriage advice. Callahan’s voice cascades over a slowly picked acoustic guitar and faint mariachi trumpets that enter when Callahan sings, “We were 30 miles from the border of Mexico”. On “35” Callahan self-reflects on his life and how he is on one hand happy that life is moving forward, but also solemn in his realization that he no longer sees himself in the books that he reads, he sings, “It was nice to know that my life had been lived before/But I can’t see myself in the books that I read anymore”.
“Ry Cooder” is a fun ode to the multi-instrumentalist Ry Cooder who also scored Wim Wenders film “Paris, Texas”. Bill Callahan sings about Cooder as if he was a mystical cowboy who wandered rural Texas building his legend at the saloons. Callahan sings very matter of factly, “Ry Cooder/He’s a real straight shooter”.
Bill Callahan has explored many different genres and sounds, in the 80’s and 90’s Callahan made melancholic lo-fi music under the alias, Smog. Callahan was sonically more experimental; his music now is often simpler, many of the songs on Gold Record are acoustic. “Let’s Move to the Country” is a reworking of a Smog song by the same title that was released in 1999. On both versions, Callahan’s voice is optimistic and convincing, “Let’s move to the country/Just you and me”. As Smog and early in his career, he holds back, “Let’s start a…/Let’s start a…” clearly the word that Callahan was not quite ready to sing was “family”. Callahan’s reworking shows a wiser and a more settled down adult, Callahan purses his lips together and sings, “Let’s start a family/Let’s have a baby/Or maybe two”. Bill Callahan, a little older and a little more learned, he’s ready to settle down and start a new life on the range.
Gold Record is a surprise, after such a long hiatus between Have Fun with God and Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest it seemed unlikely that the low key artist would release music so shortly after such a grand return. We are so fortunate that Bill decided to give us something more to chew on, Gold Record is simple, but packed with lyrical mastery and it plays through without any hitches. Each song encapsulates a lesson or a character that Callahan wants us to either learn about or learn from, and his voice sinks in comfortable in the life that he has lived.
