The prolific Bill Callahan brought his dry sense of humor and signature baritone voice to Cleveland’s Treelawn this past week. “I’m trying to say something profound here…without saying anything profound,” he joked in between strums. “That’s my whole M.O.”
And joke or not, he’s done it effectively for nearly four decades now. His songs are like meditations, and his performance of them solo is equally transfixing. I typically prefer live arrangements with a full band, but Callahan’s songs work either way. The Treelawn audience was so locked in, you could hear a pin drop.
The setlist pulled from just a few of his extensive list of (truly excellent) studio albums, YTILAER (2022), Gold Record (2020), Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest (2019), Apocalypse (2011), and Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (2009). Callahan concluded this night with some fan favorites from his earlier years, when he went by the moniker “Smog.”
I was particularly psyched to hear “Say Valley Maker,” “Let’s Move to the Country,” and his concluding epic Smog’s-Greatest-Hits mash up during “Let Me See the Colts.” (For fellow Bill Callahan nerds, we’re taking snippets of “Dress Sexy at My Funeral,” “Cold Blooded Old Times,” “Sycamore,” and “Teen Spaceship.”)
Callahan is spending June and July on the Road throughout the UK and Europe. He did share a couple new songs with us in Cleveland, so perhaps an album is on the horizon.
