Whale of a Heart: Bill Callahan Holiday Matinee

Bill Callahan, the staring-into-the-void force behind Smog, has been at the forefront of the lo-fi scene since the early 90s. Although Smog’s music was highly personal and bore Callahan’s signature cold vocals and dolorous lyrics, this year’s warmly lauded Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is only the second album released under his own name. Touching upon his on-again, off-again relationship with darkness, it not only features some of the best lyrical lines of 2009 (“I used to be sort of blind but now I can sort of see”), but more than fully justifies his movement away from lo-fi instrumentals through his most supple arrangements yet.

Callahan being kindred in spirit to the kind of introspection that the holidays often set off, and church being the place we assume soul-searching happens when there aren’t fabulous concerts going on, we’re very excited about Sunday’s matinee concert at St. David’s Episcopal. Reportedly, it’s scheduled early around handbell practice. But should Callahan and a handbell choir ever run into one another, it wouldn’t be altogether bad fit. Brooklyn indie rock outfit Lights will open.

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Bill Callahan [Myspace]
Lights [Myspace]