In a Green Man Minute: Bill Callahan
Posted By Ben On 1st September 2007 @ 13:42 In Y & B | No Comments
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Cold-blooded. **
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** Seen at the 2007 [2] Green Man Festival. Callahan played the tightest set of the festival’s three days. Self-assured to the point of contemptuousness, he also came across - strange fire and ice in his veins - as humbled, as though in submission to his songs and the fact of performance.
Said performance saw a burning coldness toward imperfection marshalled by the guitarist and transmitted to his clean-cut keyboardist and long-haired drummer. The former, I believe, was Jonathan Meiburg. (Can anyone confirm? See photos below.) The only crack in the resin of Callahan’s cool was to be found on his instrument: Joanna Newsom’s name “encircled” by a heart and accompanied by a small note, all drawn in red pen.
He played new songs - mainly from [3] Woke on a Whaleheart, his latest album - which washed over us like a hypnotist’s voice, each a heavy shroud we were loath to pull off.
At last, he indulged us with “Cold-blooded Old Times”, his final number. See the clip from “Sycamore”, below.
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Clip from “Sycamore” (1 min)
- Not loading? Watch it on the [5] boswest YouTube channel
- See also: [6] “Rock Bottom Riser” (complete song, also recorded at Green Man 2007, posted by [7] missyhate)
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- [13] Bill Callahan home (Drag City) | [14] Smog home (Drag City)
Article printed from boswestblog.com: http://boswestblog.com
URL to article: http://boswestblog.com/2007/09/01/in-a-green-man-minute-bill-callahan/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex/1233673463/
[2] Green Man Festival: http://www.thegreenmanfestival.co.uk/
[3] Woke on a Whaleheart: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWoke-Whal
eheart-Bill-Callahan%2Fdp%2FB000MNP2X0%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1188645897%26sr%3D8-1&tag=boswestblogco-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
[4] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex/1233681681/
[5] boswest YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=boswest
[6] “Rock Bottom Riser”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avateamwC3I
[7] missyhate: http://www.youtube.com/user/missyhate
[8] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex/1234542290/
[9] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex/1233685907/
[10] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex/1234553776/
[11] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex/1233694151/
[12] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex/1234562524/
[13] Bill Callahan home: http://www.dragcity.com/bands/callahan.html
[14] Smog home: http://www.dragcity.com/bands/smog.html
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