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LOST AND FOUNDATION
The cycle of life is a bitch, kids — it really is. When you’re young, you’re taught all sorts of absolutes, the 2 + 2s of life. Then you grow up a little and suddenly, one and one don’t make two, one and one make one! You realize that the absolute of one is equaled by minus one and geez, it’s really empowering. You start thinking that you know it all again, the ambiguous ALL that there is to know, but you’re really not done growing and knowing yet. Today, we see that which we’ve called history, which we once recognized as a linear progression, as instead a circle, or set of concentric circles, superimposed over each other and connecting at odd intersects with moments of sudden recall in the future and/or trails of vapor in the past. Every moment is now, and you dig it. But you’re not done growing, and neither are we.
The Newbury / Callahan Heaven Help the Child split 7” sees its release tomorrow (27th) If 7” ain’t shit use to you, Drag City have got your back with FLAC and MP3 downloads too.
AMERICAN SONGBOOK TO CALLAHAN: “WELCOME!” CALLAHAN TO SONGBOOK: “NO, YOU’RE WELCOME.”
Tomorrow evening Bill Callahan will make his Lincoln Center debut as a part of the Center’s American Songbook series. It’s pretty pretentious - I’m sure you’ve seen it on TV. Somebody performs your song while you sit up in the mezzanine with a smile plastered on your face, trying to live through the moment with a medal rainbow-strapped around your neck. It’s a good moment for mom, but for the rest of us…
Oh, wait, that’s the Kennedy Center Honors, right! No, no - this thing is a big deal. It’s actually based on something with merit. We can get behind the idea of the American Songbook, it’s certainly a form of heritage for our artists outside of the trail of defunct clubs and unmarked graves that represent “history” for most of our own. This is serious shit here. There’s a program and everything, with notes like, “We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members…” Whoa. Really? We’ve got shows that are nothing but coughing, rustling paper and the sounds of audience members. And they’re sold out, too! But don’t worry - if that’s too off-putting for you, Bill also wrote a “Note From the Artist” that should put your mind at ease. See for yourselves - you can view it online if this sounds weird! We know it’s a lot to ask for you to click a link, but this is a definite once-in-lifetime type thing. Plus, when Bill writes even a sentence, the world’s a happier place. And the man wrote an entire half-page for this program. No wonder he hasn’t returned any of our calls in a month! The man’s clearly talked out.
Allow this citation:
“Playing these shows for Apocalypse has been a most rewarding experience. I feel like tonight marks the end of the Apocalypse tour. I was looking for something to end it with, as it seemed it would last forever – and then this show came along and I was set.”
So this will be quite the event. Park Avenue will literally empty as the music cognosenti rumble like a herd of lemmings to West side! Lincoln Center’s lost and found will swell with scarves bought on Etsy! And there will be an inexplicable bed bug outbreak in Manhattan immediately following the performance. And these are the new HIV-positive bed bugs we’re talking about.
Bill Callahan / Mickey Newbury Split Release!
Bill Callahan is set to tackle a classic Mickey Newbury track on an upcoming split release.
Mickey Newbury never quite got his due. An undoubtedly talented songwriter, his output was the subject of last year’s superb re-issue ‘An American Trilogy’.
An expansive, exhaustive look at his career ‘An American Trilogy’ led to a resurgence of interest in Mickey Newbury. Now Saint Cecilia Knows and Drag City have confirmed plans for a split single, featuring an exclusive cover version from Bill Callahan.
Tackling ‘Heaven Help The Child’ Bill Callahan is able to salute an important influence on his own career. A press quote: “There’s something psychedelic and transcendent about Mickey’s best work and when he gets into the realms of songs like ‘Heaven Help The Child’, where he spans generations and flies over time while still maintaining a singular mind, he’s imparting a truly epic knowledge and vision. The song always reminded me of the movie Once Upon a Time in America.”
Provoked by the Vietnam War, ‘Heaven Help The Child’ is a protest songs of sorts. Deeply personal, an archive quote from Mickey Newbury supplies more information: “The point I was trying to make in that song is that every generation thinks that its problems are unique where its problems really are as old as man. There are no new problems; there are only new faces having them.”
American Songbook 2012 Season
Lincoln Center’s acclaimed series American Songbook returns to the elegant Allen Room in January for its fourteenth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today’s most dynamic songwriting. The music of Broadway, Latin culture and hip-hop, bluegrass, rock, and pop will be presented, along with three evenings devoted to great American composers and lyricists.
Singer/songwriters, both emerging and veteran, are part of American Songbook as well. Diva of the demi-monde Keren Ann is part of the series, as is the man whose deep voice and masculine presence has earned him the nickname “The John Wayne of Indie Rock,” Bill Callahan.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Bill Callahan
Tickets start at $35
TICKETS can be purchased online beginning November 14, 2011 at Lincoln Center’s website americansongbook.org. Tickets for the Friends of Lincoln Center go on sale November 3, and single tickets go on sale to the public beginning November 14.
The complete schedule is at Lincoln Center’s site
Bill nominated for Uncut Music Award
The award, which is given out by the irrelevant UK publication Uncut, sees one album chosen from a shortlist of eight by a panel of judges.
The winner of the award will be announced on November 27. The full transcript of the judging panel’s discussions about the album will also be published on Uncut.
The full shortlist for the Uncut Music Award is as follows:
Bill Callahan – ‘‘Apocalypse’
Fleet Foxes – ‘Helplessness Blues’
PJ Harvey – ‘Let England Shake’
Bon Iver – ‘Bon Iver’
Josh T Pearson – ‘Last Of The Country Gentlemen’
Radiohead – ‘The King Of Limbs’
Paul Simon – ‘So Beautiful Or So What’
Gillian Welch – ‘The Harrow & The Harvest’
Tonight!
Return to Europe
A string of European dates in November announced:
Zakk, Düsseldorf, Germany, 7 November 2011
Enjoy Jazz Festival @ Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg, Germany, 8 November 2011
Le Romandie, Lausanne, Switzerland, 9 November 2011
Manufaktur, Schorndorf, Germany, 10 November 2011
Rozrywki Theatre, Chorzow, Poland, 12 November 2011
Kleine Reithalle, Dresden, Germany, 13 November 2011
Schlachthof, Bremen, Germany, 14 November 2011
Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark, 16 November 2011
Stora Teatern, Gothenburg, Sweden, 17 November 2011
Kulturkirken Jakob,Oslo, Norway, 18 November 2011
Kägelbanan, Stockholm, Sweden, 20 November 2011
Palladium, Malmo, Sweden, 21 November 2011
VoxHall, Aarhus, Denmark, 22 November 2011
Cirque Royal / Autumn Falls Festival,Brussels, Belguim, 24 November 2011
Tivoli / Le Guess Who Festival,Utrecht, Netherlands, 25 November 2011
La Gaîté Lyrique,Paris, France, 26 November 2011
Brilliant Corners Of Popular Amusements
Bill’s booked to play the Brilliant Corners Of Popular Amusements festival at Ekhart Park, Chicago on
CAVE will be sharing the tent earlier in the day - DON’T miss their sweet jamz!
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