Bill Callahan

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Biography

Rising to prominence in the early 1990s under the alias Smog, Maryland’s Bill Callahan (born June 3rd, 1966), raised in the rural English county of North Yorkshire, is credited as one of the lo-fi rock scene’s early innovators, with his pared-back four-track home recordings exploring bleak themes of loneliness, hopelessness and distant memories with a beguiling sincerity. A self-sufficient multi-instrumentalist who knows his way around not only a guitar but also the piano, banjo and harmonica, he initially found himself most comfortable composing instrumentals, although his country-tinged baritone would go on to become one of his defining features. After signing to Drag City in 1992, he soon became a cult favourite, with the critical acclaim of 1993’s Julius Caesar – which featured cello from Kim Osterwalder – and 1995’s Wild Love leading him to land a deal with esteemed indie label Domino Records. 1999’s Knock Knock brought some of his biggest successes in the form of “Let’s Move to the Country” and “Cold Blooded Old Times”, and he continued to release well-received albums as Smog on a near-annual basis until 2007, when he began to record under his birth name with the new album Woke on a Whaleheart. His 2013 effort, Dream River, marked his debut on the Billboard 200, reaching #94 in the US and #44 in the UK, and he achieved another career high in 2019 with Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest, which reached #5 on Billboard’s Independent Albums Chart and #31 on the Album Sales Chart, even breaking the overall UK top 40 at #37. His eighteenth album, Gold Record, arrived in 2020 to widespread praise, with critics noting it marked a departure from the largely insular themes of his previous works.