Bill Callahan settled in Plano, Texas last summer to record second solo LP I Wish We Were An Eagle. He completed basic tracking in four sleepless days, then handed the tapes off to arranger Brian Beattie. In a recent Progress Report, Bill explained his songwriting process: "I'm more about literal meaning or clarity. I pretty much have to write t...

NAME: Bill CallahanPROGRESS REPORT: Releasing Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (Drag City), his 13th album (his second as Bill Callahan) on April 14. Recorded at The Track in Plano, TX and Cacophony in Austin, TX.Maybe it's his lyrics, which oscillate between downtrodden and vaguely threatening, or maybe it's his rich baritone voice, but Bill C...

Banhart kissed his beard goodbye, but the gender-bending/open-ended sexuality remains on "Forget About Him," his contribution to the Kath Bloom tribute CD Loving Takes This Course. The 16-song collection also includes Bill Callahan, Mark Kozelek, the Dodos, Josephine Foster, Scout Niblett, etc. If you're unfamiliar with Bloom, she's a Connecticu...

Photo by Lauren DukoffDevendra Banhart's handful of covers have always stood out to me more than any of his trippy originals. One-offs like "Fistful of Love" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" highlight his vocal nuances without letting him float around in the stratosphere. He needs these songs' rigid structures, and in turn he can loosen them from ...

Photo by Drew KatchenTuba-voiced depressive Bill Callahan used to call himself Smog, but he's been going by his given name ever since 2007's Woke on a Whaleheart. That change in moniker was supposed to signal a transition to happier music (or, at least, to less cripplingly bitter music), but in the time since Whaleheart, he broke up with Joanna ...