Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
Few songwriters have Bill Callahan’s eye for wry detail: “Like motel curtains, we never really met,” the singer-songwriter declares on “Angela,” using his weather-worn baritone. On his first studio album in five years—an unusually long gap for Callahan—one of the enduring voices in alternative music continues to pare back the extraneous in his sound. A noise musician and mighty mumbler when he broke through under the moniker of Smog in the early 1990s, Callahan now favors minimal indie-folk brushstrokes such as a guitar strum, a sighing pedal steel guitar, or simply barely audible room ambience. The 20 songs here insinuate themselves with bittersweet melodies and a conversational tone, and they’re a strong reminder of Callahan\'s dry sense of humor: “The panic room is now a nursery,” the recently married new father sings on “Son of the Sea.” But if he’s comparatively settled in life, Callahan still knows how to hit an unnerving note with a matter-of-fact ease.
The voice murmuring in our ear, with shaggy-dog and other kinds of stories, is an old friend we're so glad to hear again. Bill’s gentle, spacey take on folk and roots music is like no other; scraps of imagery, melody and instrumentation tumble suddenly together in moments of true human encounters.
A peerless storyteller gazes deep into domestic life and offers a long, sun-warmed double album that is a highlight of his career.
Veteran songwriter returns to the public eye with the sprawling Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest
A long time coming, but well worth the wait, 'Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest' is a rich and complex album, layered with beautiful explorations of birth, life and death.
Bill Callahan packed a lot of living into the years between Dream River and Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest: He married in 2014, welcomed a son in 2015, and lost his mother in 2018.
The seismic changes that have taken place in Bill Callahan's life over the last six years have beautifully informed his 20 song-strong return.
To be a fan of Bill Callahan, of late, feels a lot like being on a glorious winning streak. Since retiring his Smog handle in 2007, Callahan...
After six years, and a lot of life, Bill Callahan is back with a gently shocking and sweetly relatable new album Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest.
Humour and subtly shattering insights into a new life as a parent add profundity to Callahan’s expansive album
Double-LP is an expansive exploration of the pastoral, with beautifully drawn vignettes