Confessions that dodge pathos, accompanied by a trio of faithful musicians, elevating a rustic yet silky timbre.
“Why do men sing?”, Bill Callahan asks on the sweeping track Why Do Men Sing, which opens his new album with a generous infusion of guitars and delicate brass. The question will remain unresolved, and that’s for the best: doubt suits this American songwriting luminary so well. In a statement, he himself confesses: “Improvisation, the unpredictable and the unknown keep me motivated to make music.”
Callahan continues his existential reflections in the company of three seasoned musicians who had already accompanied him on the Reality tour in 2022, then on the live album Resuscitate! (2024): guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and the immense drummer Jim White (Dirty Three, The Hard Quartet…) who here brings his subtle touch to hushed pieces. Other instruments complete the palette, from violin to pedal steel, from piano to trombone.
Impossible not to be swept away by that abyssal voice
Nestled in this folk shell, Bill Callahan’s voice takes center stage, deep yet silky, rustic yet strikingly elegant, recounting his lyrics like a diary. The Maryland-born songwriter touches on his fear of death, his vulnerabilities, and his disdain for Auto-Tune. “Today I’m approaching sixty, I have two children / I wonder what they’ll think of me when they’re grown,” he confides in the poignant Empathy, an open letter to his father.
Impossible not to be pulled in by this abyssal timbre that seems to bear witness to us, as on the gripping Pathol O. G.: “You know, I’ve been writing and singing songs for thirty years / I really like it / In the beginning, it was my way of communicating with others, with myself and with the spirits […] Over time, I started to seek refuge in my guitar rather than in people in my moments of solitude, sorrow and confusion / The opposite of the reason that pushed me to start / I began to wonder: is this creativity or a pathology?”
On the stormy The Man I’m Supposed to Be, with its dark beauty, his confessions reach new heights: “It’s been too long that I’ve lived in my head / That I don’t love you enough in our bed / From now on I’ll live as if tomorrow were the day of my death / I don’t want to be the man I am anymore / I want the man you see to be the man you adore.” Mission accomplished.
My Days of 58 (Drag City/Modulor). Released February 27.
