Bill Callahan shares first new song from YTILAER, ‘Coyotes’
Over his winding career, Bill Callahan has etched out a niche as one of the best and most original songwriters currently putting out music. With a voice that wavers with an unapologetic quiver and words of wry riddled poignancy, Callahan tells it how it is, and it is really rather charming. His latest outing continues that trend.
In the same vein as songs like ‘One Fine Morning’ and ‘Pigeons’, there is a sense of a songwriter propped upon a porch when it comes to his demurring musings in ‘Coyotes’. Somewhat rambling and filled with dissonant jazz flourishes, Callahan is not afraid to wander, but a joyous melody allows for this c’est la vie excursion as he tackles life in essence.
“We lived for a while in a house in the hills,” Callahan said of the song’s origins. “Coyote hills. The coyotes would start their song at dawn. Dawn and dusk were their main appearance times. Our dog would sleep outside sometimes in the morning and our boy was still bite-size. The coyotes would come take notes, edging closer each day.”
Continuing: “Mornings on the kingsize outdoor daybed. Like a righteous floating tide, the coyotes would drift into our world. Predator and prey, blurred. Past and present, blurred. The young, the aged are to be snatched and devoured. Past lives edge in closer to try to speak to us. Current lives eye the past ones like sleeping dogs. And love spans all, that is why the feeling is so deep—deeper than one lifetime.”
This sense of primordial wonder being paired with pithy terms like “a peanut of a child” is typical of Callahan’s style. There is something in the seamless waltz of his work that dishes out profundity with a pillow-propped dreaminess. This tale of clusters, packs or coyote bands, is one that could just as easily drift into the background of a sunny day.
In short, it’s a cracking introduction to his forthcoming album YTILAER, which is due for release on October 14th via Drag City. You can check out the single below.
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