Bill Callahan :: My Days of 58
Photo: Hanly Banks Callahan
Since establishing one of the most creatively calculated and deeply inspiring melodic monikers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bill Callahan (Smog), no not the Offensive line coach of the NFL, has stood the test of tonal time with atmospheric accuracy and brilliance, like his contemporaries, Will Oldham (Palace/Bonnie “Prince” Billy), Jason Molina, David Berman (Silver Jews), and several others have done over the last three decades. Having released several monumental classics like his first LP release, “Sewn To The Sky”, “Knock Knock”, “Super”, and 2005’s “River Ain't Too Much To Love”, Callahan’s music and poetic prolificacy are an iconic institution of intimacy and harmonious heartbreak, and thank christ he’s still here to sing us to sleep at night when we can’t turn off numbing noise brought on by the endlessly insanity of the world’s disorder. It’s been nearly twenty years since the release of his first album under his own name, “Woke On A Whaleheart”, if you can believe it. But Johnny Appleseed returns with his latest effort, “My Days Of 58”, which features a cosmic cast of musicians and longtime collaborators who toured alongside him during 2022’s tour of “REALITY”, including Matt Kinsey, Dustin Laurenzi, and drummer extraordinaire Jim White as well as several other players: Richard Bowden, Pat Thrasher, Chris Vreeland, and Mike St. Clair. “My Days Of 58” is Callahan’s eighth studio album, and one that shatters the sonic silence of the past by harmoniously highlighting the present in a way that melodically mimics a tonal tornado that splinters off in the distance just moments before deciding to spare the innocent town below. An emotional experiment that carefully captures the eager essence of the veteran songwriter’s intimate intensity, the album is both magical and masterful, while simultaneously coexisting alongside some of the greats who raged before him.
“With this record, I kept thinking of it as a ‘living room record.’ I’m not talking about fidelity at all here. Living room attitude. Living room vibe. Not too loud, not otherworldly. I asked for the horns to be relaxed like someone on the couch playing, not a blast from heaven or hell.”
Featuring twelve trepidatious tracks that singularly save the human spirit of listeners from eternal exile, but only for the length of the album, the spiritual subjects and cumbersome characters embedded in the mysterious material find comfort in that bring a poetic pleasure to the world that would otherwise be without this beautiful music. “I usually just sing a melody to a horn player or let them try a few takes and go from there. This time, I thought, why not get some of the record charted out. There’s always room for spontaneity on top of that. And we did indeed throw some off-the-cuff stuff on top of the charted horns in a couple of cases where they weren’t fully doing what I wanted. With this record, I kept thinking of it as a ‘living room record.’ I’m not talking about fidelity at all here. Living room attitude. Living room vibe. Not too loud, not otherworldly. I asked for the horns to be relaxed, like someone on the couch playing, not a blast from heaven or hell”, says Callahan about the liberation logistics of the album. “My Days Of 58” is an ageless affair in the sense of arriving at a certain point in one’s life, and in one's career as a songwriter and a merciless musician whose spiritual search for truth and cultural connection has landed him as one of the greatest artists of his generation. Capturing those atmospheric anecdotes and spinning them from a yarn a thousand miles long, Callahan’s approach, and overall presence in sound, is something that we’ve cherished for over thirty years. I hope the rest of the world catches on if they're not already buying the record after reading this.
