Review Summary: An indie folk classic, from perhaps the most prolific singer/songwriter of the last 20 years.
Bill Callahan is in a somewhat strange position of being both well-known and unknown, in that he has had a long lasting career as an acclaimed indie singer/songwriter, yet he isn't mentioned anywhere near as much as the likes of Elliott Smith for example. Despite his relative "obscurity", at least compared to other similar artists, he has a large and varied discography spanning two decades.
Smog was the moniker that Bill used to record under for most of his career. Starting from his debut "Sewn to the Sky" in 1990 all the way up to this album. It was a period lasting 15 years, until he dropped it and decided to record under his own name. The early albums were raw, and unrefined but pioneering in the lo-fi indie genre which would become more prominent in the coming decade, and it wasn't until 1996's "The Doctor Came at Dawn", that Bill really came into his own as a songwriter. From then on Bill went on to release a string of fantastic albums like 1997's "Red Apple Falls", 1999's "Knock Knock", and 2000's "Dongs of Sevotion", where he developed his style even more. In 2005 however, he released what I would consider his definitive album, "A River Ain't Too Much to Love".
With A River, Bill decided to take a more back-to-basics approach and record a purely acoustic folk album. This works to his advantage as the listener is more able to focus on his lyrics, which has always been his strength. It is a simpler album than some of his more ambitious stuff like Dongs of Sevotion, which experimented with a subtle electronic and jazz influence, and it is all the more focused for it. For an artist as consistent as Bill, it is hard to pick out one single album as being his best, but in my opinion consistency is what gives A River the edge. From front to back this is Bill's best collection of songs. Perhaps the most signature aspect of Bill's lyrics is the way he mixes meaning with humor, he can cut a line that cuts to the bone while making you chuckle at the same time, and this album is full of those lines. Songs such as Running the Loping with its "With sunlight around, my skin turns brown and you wouldn't know me from your pa. Or Adam or Allah" being a prime example. Another one of my favorites is the line in I'm New Here - "Met a woman in a bar, I told her I was hard to get to know, and near impossible to forget. She said I had an ego on me, the size of Texas... Well, I'm new here and I forget, does that mean big or small?". Its moments like these that really make Bill stand out from his some of his more mundane contemporaries.
This album is packed full of highlights. Say Valley Maker is perhaps the best song on the album, and maybe even of Bill's career. It starts out painting an image of a man accepting his death and then transitions into a defiance of death. The change in lyrics from "And when the river dries, will you bury me in wood. Where the river dries. will you bury me in stone" to the outro of the song containing "So bury me in wood, and I will splinter. Bury me in stone, and I will quake. Bury me in water, and I will geyser. Bury me in fire, and I’m gonna phoenix", shows how you can make a song start with dark with somewhat depressing subject matter and turn it into a positive. The drums of Jim White of Australian post-rock band Dirty Three, that come in during that last part, only serve to enhance the triumph over death that the song portrays.
Bill has recorded many great albums over his career, but none are as consistent or fully realized as this. A River Ain't Too Much to Love is an indie folk classic, from perhaps the most prolific singer/songwriter of the last 20 years. Will Oldham is probably the only other contender for that title. It shows Bill at his best, both musically and lyrically, and was a stepping stone for everything he released after this under his own name. In Bill's own words regarding the album, “That was all a finger-picking record, and I started to understand more the connection between guitar and voice, and the way they can be one thing. A River Ain’t Too Much To Love was a transition for me. There’s something really pure about it.”
