Back in the late 90s and early 00s there was a lot of Americana/ singer- songwriter music going on and I did my fair share of it- Howe Gelb, Giant Sand, Bonnie Prince Billy, Calexico, Smog, Ryan Adams (now disgraced and to be fair I got out early with him), Iron And Wine... I'm sure there are more I've forgotten about. As a result I don't often feel like I need to dip my toes back into the sandy desert of Americana/ Alt- Country but occasionally a song or an album comes along that catches my ear.
Recently it was Bill Callahan, formerly recording as Smog, who a few weeks ago released a new album- My Days Of 58. Bill is approaching 60 and the songs on this album were all written during the year he was 58. I'm 56 in a couple of weeks so can relate to the feeling of turning 60 being a big deal. Bill Callahan is wry, deadpan, at times bleakly funny and honest in his lyrics. This song came to me via the algorithm and I clicked play without expecting to be surprised too much...
Why Do Men Sing is very familiar- Bill's voice is especially familiar, homely and warm- and the acoustic guitars are close up and woody. The song unfolds over seven minutes, growing into something sprawling and veering on uncontrolled with high pitched backing vocals bleeding in, an electric guitar and piano adding to the sound, and Bill asking questions, meditating on middle age and masculinity and why men sing. Why do men sing? What is this place that you took me too?
Horns join in and Bill impersonates Lou Reed as a response to his question- 'let it ride let it ride'. I don't know if we find a definitive answer to the question but it becomes less of a problem as the song plays, the singing of the song instead becoming an answer in itself.
Back in April 2000- and doesn't that seem a long time ago?- Bill was still recording as Smog and he released Dongs Of Sevotion, an album title that still takes some beating. The second song on it was this...
Bill was twenty six years younger then (weren't we all), in his early thirties with decades ahead of him. His electric guitar has a similar Lou Reed tone and his voice is recognisably the same, a little softer perhaps, less worn. He tells his wife/ future widow to dress sexy at his funeral, to wear her blouse 'undone to here' and skirt cut 'up to here', to wink at the minister and to regale the mourners at the wake with tales of their sexual exploits- doing it on the beach and on the railroad tracks. A younger man's meditation on life and death and memory. In 2013 Bill was interviewed about the subject of death in his songs and he replied that he tried to avoid it but that it was ultimately 'the big joke at the end of existence'. Maybe that's why men (and women) sing.
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