Callahan started out as a highly experimental artist, using substandard instruments and recording equipment. His early songs often nearly lacked melodic structure and were clumsily played on poorly tuned guitars (possibly influenced by Jandek, whom Callahan admired), resulting in the dissonant sounds on his self-released cassettes and debut album Sewn to the Sky. Much of his early output was instrumental, a stark contrast to the lyrical focus of his later work. Apparently, he used lo-fi techniques not primarily because of an aesthetic preference but because he didn't have any other possibility to make music. Once he signed a contract with Drag City, he also started to use recording studios and a greater variety of instruments for his records.
From 1993 to 2000, Callahan's recordings grew more and more "professional" sounding, with more instruments, and a higher sound quality. In this period he recorded two albums with the influential producer Jim O'Rourke and Tortoise's John McEntire, and collaborated with Neil Hagerty. After 2000's Dongs of Sevotion, Callahan began moving back to a slightly simpler instrumentation and recording style, while retaining the more consistent songwriting style he had developed over the years. This shift is apparent in albums such as Rain on Lens, Supper, and A River Ain't Too Much to Love.
Smog's songs are often based on simple, repetitive structures, consisting of a simple chord progression repeated for the duration of the entire song. His singing is strikingly characterized by his baritone voice and a style of delivery without being over-emotional. Melodically and lyrically he tends to eschew the verse-chorus approach favoured by many contemporary songwriters, preferring instead a more free-form approach relying less on melodic and lyrical repetition. Themes in Callahan's lyrics include relationships, moving, horses, teenagers, bodies of water, and more recently, politics. His generally dispassionate delivery of lyrics and dark irony often obfuscate complex emotional and lyrical twists and turns. Critics have generally characterized his music as depressing and intensely introverted, with one critic describing it as "a peep-show view into an insular world of alienation." Despite this there is also a broad swathe of joy throughout Callahan's work and more attentive critics have picked up on Callahan's tendency to black humour, a tendency often confused with a depressed mental state or a genuine obsession with the morbid, a confusion no doubt caused by his deadpan vocals.
Cat Power (Chan Marshall) recorded Callahan's song Bathysphere on her 1996 album What Would the Community Think. She covered him again in 2000 on her Covers Record doing the song Red Apples.
Smog's Cold Blooded Old Times appears on the High Fidelity soundtrack. The song Vessel in Vain (from Supper) was also used on the soundtrack of the independent British film Dead Man's Shoes in 2004. In October 2007, Cadillac released a commercial which featured Smog's song Held and Bob Dylan driving a 2008 Escalade through the desert.
As of 2007 he lives in Austin, Texas where he released Woke on a Whaleheart. It was his first record release as Bill Callahan.
One Fine Morning
Bill Callahan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Yeah, one fine morning I'm going to ride out
Just me and the skeleton crew
We're going to ride out in a country kind of silence
We're going to ride out in a country silence
One fine morning
Yeah, it's all coming back to me now
The curtain rose and burned in the morning sun
And the mountains bowed down like a ballet
Like a ballet of the heart
One fine morning
And the baby and we all lay in state
And I said Hey! No more drovering!
No more drovering!
When the earth turns cold and the earth turns black
Will I feel you riding on my back?
For I am a part of the road
The hardest part
My apocalypse
DC 4 5 0
DC 4 5 0
The song "One Fine Morning" by Bill Callahan is a fascinating meditation on the end of the world and the possibility of finding peace in the midst of destruction. The song is framed by the image of a lone rider setting out with a skeleton crew into a country silence, and it's clear that this ride is a journey that will take them beyond the edge of the world as they know it. There's a sense of impending doom in the lyrics, as Callahan speaks of the mountains bowing down and the curtain burning in the morning sun. Yet, there's also a sense of hope, as he suggests that this apocalypse might be a chance for rebirth, a chance to leave behind the old ways of "drovering" and embrace a new way of life.
Line by Line Meaning
One fine morning I'm going to ride out
At some point in time, I plan to embark on a journey on horseback
Yeah, one fine morning I'm going to ride out
Indeed, I am going to ride out on horseback one day
Just me and the skeleton crew
I will only be joined by a select few people
We're going to ride out in a country kind of silence
Our journey will be quiet, peaceful, and through a rural area
We're going to ride out in a country silence
The tranquility of the countryside will accompany us
Yeah, it's all coming back to me now
I am remembering something important from the past
My apocalypse!
A catastrophic event is imminent
The curtain rose and burned in the morning sun
The beginning of the apocalypse was intense and dramatic
And the mountains bowed down like a ballet
Even the natural world was affected by the apocalypse's force
Like a ballet of the heart
The poetic beauty of the mountain's bowing moved me emotionally
One fine morning
The apocalypse began on a typical morning
And the baby and we all lay in state
My family and I were mourning and grieving together
And I said Hey! No more drovering!
I yelled out a declaration that we would no longer wander or drift aimlessly
When the earth turns cold and the earth turns black
During a future dark and cold period
Will I feel you riding on my back?
I am wondering if someone will support me during this tough time
For I am a part of the road
I feel connected to the path I am on in life
The hardest part
It is challenging to continue on this path
My apocalypse
The cataclysmic event that altered my life forever
DC 4 5 0
Unclear or intentionally cryptic reference
DC 4 5 0
Unclear or intentionally cryptic reference
Contributed by Hannah I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.