Words: Alex Wood | Photo: @JimTuerk
Despite being far from a household name in the music scene, Bill Callahan’s tours draw a serious buzz, the songwriter finding his way to Chicago every few years at best.
When tickets to his Sunday-night show at Constellation sold out immediately, he added a Monday night performance. When this sold out just as quickly, he added two late-night performances to follow. These also sold out.
So why and how did he gain such an enthusiastic following? Is it justified?
Callahan began recording under the name Smog in the early 90s, quickly gaining an underground following for his songwriting prowess and unconventional, lo-fi recording techniques. This led to him working with mastermind producer Jim O’Rourke and Tortoise’s John McEntire and signing to influential indie label Drag City.
After giving up the Smog moniker, he began recording in a more direct folk style under his own name. Now 50 years old with 17 studio albums recorded over the last 26 years, there’s hardly a smudge on his reputation, his writing and recording maintaining a consistency that few other artists could claim.
As fans filed into the darkness of Constellation’s small concert space for his final of four performances, one could sense an aura of wonder amongst the room, the front row of folding chairs filling immediately, the concertgoers talking in a hushed voice as Neil Young’s Comes A Time played through the speakers overhead. The mismatched seats in the large, square room were filled primarily by couples and single, middle-aged men.
Chicago recording artist Whitney Johnson opened with a fitting performance under the name Matchess, sitting behind an organ and a pile of analog looping devices. Blending recorded noises, drum machine loops, organ melodies and reverbed vocals, she filled the room with a haunting ambience that sounded like a mix between Panda Bear’s Person Pitch and Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II.
The creaking of rickety folding chairs was audible as audience members awkwardly shifting in their seats, not sure what to make of the ghostly waves of noise washing overhead.
Callahan took the stage, joined by electric guitarist and frequent collaborator Matt Kinsey. Sitting on a short wooden stool, Callahan began gently strumming chords on his acoustic guitar, never looking at or addressing the silent audience.
The first verse of “Riding For The Feeling” emerged, Callahan’s strong baritone vocals overpowering his temperate acoustic strums. Kinsey entered with jarring, jagged electric cuts, showing confidence and comfort, his guitar swelling ever larger until overtaking Callahan’s entirely.
Throughout the evening, Kinsey’s improvisations would transform the performance from a simple folk show to something much bigger, the guitarist listening to every word and nuance from Callahan’s vocals and entering and exiting with riffs, chords or atonal noise as needed.
The two felt locked in, working together in unity to create the perfectly imperfect renditions of Callahan’s songs. It wasn’t necessarily technical proficiency, but more of a thoughtful experimentation.
But as interesting as the instrumentals may be, Callahan’s lyrics will always steal the show.
“Most of my fantasies are to be of use-
To be of some hard, simple, undeniable use
Like a spindle / Like a candle / Like a horseshoe / Like a corkscrew”
Delivered in his speech-like drawl, the words sound more like poetry than songs. And never was this more apparent than during four consecutive Smog songs delivered toward the beginning of the set.
“I’m New Here” featured long, droning feedback from Kinsey with intricate picking from Callahan, a strange blend of traditional folk and modern indie as the singer tapped a tambourine with his right foot.
“I’m new here / Will you show me around?
No matter how far wrong you’ve gone / You can always turn around”
“Say Valley Maker” featured a strident, jarring build, the effects-slathered electric guitar reaching deafening volumes in the undersized performance space, the track transformed from folk to a Spacemen 3 style of psychedelica.
But still, Callahan’s lyrics remained the focus.
“Because there is no love where there is no obstacle
And there is no love where there is no bramble
There is no love on the hacked away plateau
And there is no love in the unerring
And there is no love on the one true path”
The darkness of Callahan’s lyrics was often balanced with a dry humor, never more so than in “Dress Sexy At My Funeral,” a song about exactly what the title implies. The audience even laughed by the song’s conclusion, despite its depressing undertones, the electric guitar perfectly mimicking the songs shifting energy.
“And when it comes your turn to speak before the crowd
Tell them about the time we did it on the beach with the fireworks above us”
The audience otherwise didn’t make a sound for the show’s entirety, encapsulated by the strange aura of appreciation surrounding the songwriter.
When Callahan covered The Carter Family’s version of “Walk That Lonesome Valley,” the lyrics almost felt too simple and direct compared to the rest of the set.
However, “Drover” felt like the perfect set closer, lyrically amongst Callahan’s best old-time storytelling. Musically, the track featured an especially complex chord progression and harmonica from Callahan and ceaseless electric guitar, climaxing in a massive swell by the song’s end.
“Is there something you want to hear?” Callahan asked the audience upon returning to his stool after a break. At least 20 different songs were yelled from around the room, most hopeless obscurities from Smog’s massive back-catalogue.
“No one’s yelling for this but we know how to play it,” he concluded, before breaking into a sparse, slower rendition of Grateful Dead’s “Easy Wind,” the song a somewhat obscure pick from Workingman’s Dead, yet fitting the same storytelling mode as “Drover.”
Smog’s “Let Me See The Colts” closed the set, Callahan having to genuinely ask the audience whether he had performed it yet during the show, his four-concert run surely having taken its toll.
The beautiful rendition of the song felt like a perfect ending, reminding everybody present how much Callahan is truly capable of, gorgeous vocals matching gorgeous lyrics and flawless guitar, its lyrics taking listeners instantly to a different time and place.
Without having to rely on any excess, this is what captures Bill Callahan’s aura, what drives his reputation, and is exactly the reason his shows will continue to sell out.
“Have you been drinking no
Nor sleeping
The all-seeing all-knowing eye is dog tired
And just wants to see the colts”
Video courtesy of seijinlee.
Setlist:
1. Riding For The Feeling
2. Spring
3. To Be Of Use (Smog)
4. I’m New Here (Smog)
5. Say Valley Maker (Smog)
6. Dress Sexy At My Funeral (Smog)
7. America!
8. Too Many Birds
9. Walk That Lonesome Valley (The Carter Family cover)
10. Drover
Encore:
11. Easy Wind (Grateful Dead cover)
12. Let Me See The Colts (Smog)
