Bill Callahan’s music is animated by a deep calm. And that’s from the beginning, since his early lo-fi days under the name Smog, even if it still rattled every now and then. On the albums that Callahan releases under his real name, there are wind instruments, drums and all sorts of other instruments, including some duet singing. MY DAYS OF 58 follows the autobiographical narratives of the comeback album SHEPHERD IN A SHEEPSKIN VEST from 2019.
It’s about life in the family, about the children, about the deceased father. That hurts, and the tension that this music carries arises from the simultaneity of the depressing and hurtful, of which it is sung with clarity: “When I was thirty / You said you got by without a father / So you figured why should I have one / Okay okay / It made me wonder though / Can you get by without a son.” Callahan takes you where it hurts, but the contemplation that carries this carefully and mindfully orchestrated Americana music keeps the whole thing from becoming self-destructive.
On MY DAYS OF 58, Callahan, recently recovered from cancer, celebrates his own world in all its fragility. A beautiful album that talks about life without sugarcoating or dramatizing anything.
This review appears in Musikexpress 3/2026.
