“Intense, spellbinding singer at his deadpan best …Callahan is some kind of genius. Introduce yourself.” – The Guardian
Bill Callahan returns to Australia next March this time carrying a full band and Cretan-Australian duo Xylouris White with him.
The 2020 tour follows successive sold out visits for the Sydney Vivid Festival in 2017 and 2015 plus extra-curricular shows in Melbourne including a sold-out six night at Howler. This time Callahan brings new material following the release earlier this year of Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest – a double album – and his first since the much celebrated Dream River in 2013.
“A long time coming, but well worth the wait, ‘Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest’ is a rich and complex album, layered with beautiful explorations of birth, life and death” – NME
“Shepherd feels like his most something album ever—his warmest, his most generous, possibly his most profound. It is his longest, for sure, lounging comfortably across four sides of vinyl, none of it wasted. It is a high note, fond and deep and sustained.” – Pitchfork
As with the last two visits the lanky Texan will be accompanied by regular touring guitarist Matt Kinsey, his shapes and sounds the perfect compliment to Callahan’s lyrical landscapes while first timers; stand up bassist Brian Beattie and drummer Adam Jones, add the movement and colour.
Adding further depth, Xylouris White; the unlikely combination of Dirty Three drummer and sometime Callahan associate Jim White and Cretan lute playing legend George Xylouris, will join Bill for all east coast headline shows. XW themselves will release a new album The Sisypheans this November.
Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest is available now via Spunk Records
The Sisypheans is released November 8th via ABC Music