Like the presumed eagle Bill Callahan wishes we could become (based on the title of his latest album) somehow this musician managed to elude my musical net and soar unnoticed for far too many years. There is something baroque about Sometimes a Wish We Were an Eagle, something beguiling about its plaintive minimalism. Tagged as paean to a broken relationship with Joanna Newsom, the album is already on my shortlist for top record of the year. I could associate Callahan’s name with his seminal work as Smog, but for some reason I never had the opportunity to listen. After a glowing recommendation by a colleague, I listened and fell in love, which lead me to this show at Portland’s charming Aladdin.
Callahan and four other musicians, armed with guitar, cello, violin and drums took the stage following a serviceable set by the Antipodean group Bachelorette. Callahan, dressed in white shirt and jeans opted to perform sans shoes and as the band began with “Our Anniversary,” from 2003′s Supper, I could immediately tell we were in for a special performance. As Callahan sang about bullfrogs in his rich, deep voice, standing stock still with his undersize Les Paul pinned to his chest, I recognized a performer who, over the course of 14 songs, not only became totally absorbed in his music, but worked hard to absorb us as well.
For some reason in the mid-’00s, Callahan decided to abandon his Smog moniker and release records under his own name and he next played the song “Diamond Dancer” from his first Callahan record Woke On a Whale Heart. The songs were perfect symphonies of minimalism, fleshed out by the bold sounds of the cello and the strings of the violin, which alternated between ethereal and menacing. When Callahan finally played a new song, the elegant “Too Many Birds,” the refrain of “If you could only stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat” proved to be almost too much as he kicked out his feet, betraying the stoic stature he had previously adopted.
The rest of the first set was dominated by songs from Eagle, sprinkled with older chestnuts such as “Cold Blooded Old Times” and “Say Valley Maker.” Most of the new songs took on a slower tempo than the album variations and some of the changes, though minor, gave them a different light. The intense “All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast” became even more ominous in the live setting, while “Rococco Zephyr” felt naked sans the piano parts and female backing vocals. Callahan took over on keyboards for a syncopated version of “Eid Ma Clack Shaw,” the made-up words even more full of feeling, especially as he asked, “How” over and over.
Callahan remained quiet in between songs. When someone thanked him for going shoeless, he followed “The Wind and the Dove” with “That was for the guy with the foot fetish. Get a load of these babies.” And before finishing the set with “Rock Bottom Riser,” he announced it would be the “last song of the night.”
After a standing ovation, Callahan returned for a three song encore, beginning with “Let Me See the Colts.” Once he finished all Callahan had to say was, “We could do…,” and the entire theater filled with shouts of song titles. Finding a gap in the incessant screams he said, “We could do one or two more songs. But if we’re going to do two songs, one is going to be “In the Pines.” And that he did.
Callahan ended the show was an amazing version of “Bathysphere.” As he sang of a mystery world of eels, coral and swordfish, Callahan allowed us to enter his own private world where natural imagery replaces pain and heartbreak. The song finished and Callahan, bare feet and all, padded off the stage, leaving us in the glaring house lights of reality.
by David Harris
[Photos: Cassie Bone and Dixie Wells]
