Bill Callahan, Nathan Bowles Trio

×

Expand

Photo courtesy of Cat's Cradle

Bill Callahan

Bill Callahan’s voice is instantly recognizable and, frankly, peerless. Comparable in style to moody 1960s folk singer Fred Neil, it’s an instrument that is dark, tender, and resonant. On Callahan’s wonderfully discordant 1990s albums (made under the moniker Smog), the stark and menacing qualities of his voice were highlighted. Even in recent years, as a relatively mellow writer of lush folk songs, his singing remains complex, drifting eerily through vocal scales and tweaking repeated phrases until their meaning is obviated. On Callahan’s latest album, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest, he turns his attention to his life as a new husband and father, two roles he’s discussed with great delight in interviews. He unpacks the impact of these commitments by exploring unknowable systems of nature and his vulnerable state as a sleep-deprived and awed new parent, meditating on lines like “Morning is my godmother / loving me like no other.” —Josephine McRobbie