This post was originally published on May 21, 2023 and was updated on July 29, 2024. “I do think that songs are little utopias for people to live in for three or four minutes.” Bill Callahan shared this sentiment during a 2022 interview with Uproxx to promote the release of his album YTI⅃AƎЯ, and itContinue reading “Planets”
Tag Archives: Matt Kinsey
Drainface
With the release of the album YTI⅃AƎЯ in October 2022, Bill Callahan shared with Paste Magazine the sonic approach that he took for the recording: “I started becoming more interested in rock music again, so I started thinking more in terms of a band type of record…It seemed like, after the pandemic, I needed allContinue reading “Drainface”
Coyotes
In October 2022, Bill Callahan released YTI⅃AƎЯ, his third album of original compositions in three years, extending his run of putting out excellent new music after a substantial six-year gap between albums from 2013 to 2019. One of the many stand-out tracks on YTI⅃AƎЯ is “Coyotes”: The song begins with Callahan’s acoustic guitar establishing aContinue reading “Coyotes”
35
The third song on Bill Callahan’s 2020 album Gold Record is called “35”: The song starts with a simple guitar part from Callahan before Matt Kinsey joins in on a second acoustic guitar and provides a big bluesy fill. Callahan sings the first verse: I can’t see myself in the books I read these daysUsedContinue reading “35”
Summer Painter
In a 2019 interview, Bill Callahan was asked by The Creative Independent about the act of songwriting and if it had altered for Callahan since he first started: “I think for me that’s something that has never changed. When I’m in the flow of writing, I feel like I’m working on my first record allContinue reading “Summer Painter”
One Fine Morning
In a 2019 entry of Nick Cave’s indelible Red Hand Series in which he responds to questions from fans, Cave was asked about his favorite songs. He instead shared a list of what he called “hiding songs,” those songs that he felt were written exclusively for him. Cave further defined hiding songs by saying thatContinue reading “One Fine Morning”
Universal Applicant
Apocalypse, Bill Callahan’s 2011 album, begins with two songs, “Drover” and “Baby’s Breath” (explored previously on Recliner Notes), that can’t help be read as extended metaphors about the founding and settling of the American West. Those two songs are followed by “America!”, a hilarious accounting of reasons why to love the United States. The humor,Continue reading “Universal Applicant”
Bill Callahan in Asheville, NC – February 26-27, 2023
With the release of his album YTILAER in fall 2022, Bill Callahan shared during an interview with Paste the instigation behind writing the batch of songs featured on the record: “I started becoming more interested in rock music again, so I started thinking more in terms of a band type of record….It seemed like, afterContinue reading “Bill Callahan in Asheville, NC – February 26-27, 2023”
Drover
In 2011, Bill Callahan released his most critically-acclaimed album, Apocalypse. Recorded in the border town of Tornillo, Texas, the tone of the album is informed by Callahan’s relocation to Texas a few years before as he recalled in a 2022 interview with Uproxx: “When I first moved to Texas, I always felt like I wasContinue reading “Drover”
Recliner Notes 