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In July, Bill Callahan released Resuscitate!, recorded last year in Chicago and predominantly featuring tracks from his most recent studio album, YTILAER. As Thomas Blake says in his album review: In recent years, Bill Callahan has surrounded himself with some of the best musicians in the avant-garde and experimental folk scenes, and the results of these collaborations are often best appreciated in a live setting. Joining him on this album was Matt Kinsey on guitar, Dustin Laurenzi on alto sax, and Jim White on the kit.
Bill Callahan is one of those serious songwriters. Sure, he tells jokes, and his songs often rely on what you might call comic timing. But his songwriting has a Message and a Truth. It’s Big, and it’s Clever. He’s Leonard Cohen with Paul Auster’s self-knowing postmodernism and Johnny Cash’s charred heart.
Thomas Blake, KLOF Mag
To mark his multi-day solo residency in the UK and Europe, which kicks off today — he shot this footage while flying in a plane, on tour from somewhere to somewhere. As Bill reflects on both the song and the sky:
“We take that airplane view for granted. Everyone choosing to watch a Nora Ephron movie instead. But at the same time I think, what does this mean? I’m not really supposed to be here. This isn’t supposed to be a human objective point. We’re supposed to be on mountains or oceans or valleys, etc but not suspended on nothing. Thoughts of heaven but heaven doesn’t have jets. Maybe that’s why most people choose the movie instead. It’s too confusing. I was looking for footage that was neither here nor there. Not of the earth or the cosmos. Somewhere between, which I think a lot of life hangs in places like that. So it fits the song’s themes of eternity, love, reincarnation and wildness brushing against domesticity. The video ends back on earth with steam from a venting dryer seeming to create the same nether world found in the skies.”
—Bill Callahan
Bill Callahan’s solo residency runs through France, Belgium, Ireland, the UK and Poland, beginning September 17 at Café de la Danse in Paris (with support from Jerry David DeCicca). Resuscitate! is out now on 2xLP, CD and digital platforms.
Bill Callahan 2024 UK/European Solo Residencies
*Solo residency, support by Jerry David DeCicca
Sept. 17 – Paris, France @ Café de la Danse *
Sept. 18 – Paris, France @ Café de la Danse *
Sept. 20 – Brussels, Belgium @ KVS Bol *
Sept. 21 – Brussels, Belgium @ KVS Bol *
Sept. 23 – Dublin, Ireland @ Button Factory *
Sept. 24 – Dublin, Ireland @ Button Factory *
Sept. 26 – Manchester, UK @ New Century *
Sept. 27 – London, UK @ ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts *
Sept. 28 – London, UK @ ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts *
Sept. 29 – London, UK @ ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts *
Sept. 30 – London, UK @ ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts *
Oct. 3 – Krakow, Poland @ Unsound Festival @ Kino Kijów (solo)
2024 US Performances
Oct. 24-27 – Marfa, TX @ Flying Island Festival
