Drag City is set to release the new album from Bill Callahan, Woke On A Whaleheart, available nationwide on April 17, 2007. Although Bill Callahan has released a dozen albums under the name of Smog, he has laid that name to rest. Hence, we bring you Woke On A Whaleheart, Bill Callahan's debut!
Boasting the propulsive, glittering and classically pretty arrangements of Neil Michael Hagerty, this album manages to bypass the trends of the modern day while shunning retro entrapments. With a mix of gospel backing vocals by Deani Pugh-Flemmings of the Olivet Baptist Church, the incendiary guitar work of Pete Denton, and the honeyed violins of Elizabeth Warren, the music on this album touches on gospel, tough pop and American Light Opera.
The single, "Diamond Dancer", will be released on March 20th. It is accompanied by the exclusive B-side, "Taken", recorded during the same session, but not included on the album. If you are an editor or a writer for a publication that reviews singles and you are interested in hearing this, please let me know.
"River is layered with strings, snares, hammer dulcimer, and the quiet bleat of a chanter (reed pipe). It's an exquisite mix that conjures train tracks and piney woods--Southern-gothic images that linger after the final notes." -- Whitney Pastorek, Entertainment Weekly
". . . circling over the naked core of songcraft, plucking, picking and strumming his acoustic, and narrating in his deep, mellow, near-spoken croon, with just the odd lick of a brushstroke or piano key for company. Bill a modern master. Literary comparisons are inevitable: a Don DeLillo, perhaps, in a world of Nick Hornbys. Every single word counts in his latest sheaf from his songbook." -- Andrew Perry, MOJO
Tracklisting:
1. From The Rivers To The Ocean
2. Footprints
3. Diamond Dancer
4. Sycamore
5. The Wheel
6. Honeymoon Child
7. Day
8. Night
9. A Man Needs A Woman Or...
