Ytilaer

Description

THE NEW ALBUM FROM THE AMERICAN FOLK ROCK SONGWRITER A RECORD WITH SOULFUL GROOVES AND DESPERATE INTENSITY YTIJAER is Bill Callahan’s new solo album, following Blind Date Party, his project with Bonnie Prince Billy released earlier this year. From the splendid to the unsettling, the intrepid explorer Bill Callahan navigates all kinds of territories, contrasting dreams of dreams with dreams of reality. Like the character he played in Gold Record (2020), he writes stories about other people, tells jokes about everyone, and, by singing them, he becomes the songs. Bill has a full band sound on this record, with himself and Matt Kinsey on guitars, Emmett Kelly on bass and backing vocals, Sarah Ann Phillips on B3 organ, piano, and backing vocals, and Jim White on drums. Jim and Matt also sing on one track, and other vocalists step in alongside. Bill plays a little synth here and there, and Carl Smith weaves in and out of the picture with his alto clarinet, as do Mike St. Clair and Derek Phelps on brass. In between, one thinks they hear the distant sound of a steel guitar. Bill continues his journey, tunneling under the worn exterior of appearance and into the nuances that come alive in the darkness. The band follows him into passages that seem to invent themselves; they play with deeply soulful grooves and/or desperate intensity, as the moments dictate.