Album review: Bill Callahan, Dream River (Drag City)

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

My recent work focusing on Latino voters in Arizona has shown me how crucial independent journalism is in giving voice to underrepresented communities.

Your support is what allows us to tell these stories, bringing attention to the issues that are often overlooked. Without your contributions, these voices might not be heard.

Every dollar you give helps us continue to shine a light on these critical issues in the run up to the election and beyond

Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Callahan’s fifth album under his own name in the eight years since the Smog lifted, sounds precisely as you might expect it to: drily humorous but essentially dark lyrics, delivered in that trademark detached baritone, while instruments from flutes to violins flitter fittingly (never a note out of place) in the background.

Though his appeal remains frustratingly specialist, with each release it becomes clearer that Callahan is the natural successor to Leonard Cohen (yup, that good) and so, perhaps, the wider appeal that still eludes him will come with the passing of the years. In the meantime, the perfection of lyrics such as “The only words I’ve said today/ Are ‘beer’/ And ‘thank you’” remain private poetic pleasures.