Bill Callahan Unveils New Album ‘My Days of 58’ with “The Man I’m Supposed to Be”
Bill Callahan, photo by Bill McCullough
Bill Callahan has announced a new album, My Days of 58. Set to arrive on Feb. 27 via Drag City, the venerable singer-songwriter’s ninth solo studio album under his own name – and 20th including his releases as Smog – is his first since 2022’s YTI⅃AƎЯ. To preview the project, he’s shared “The Man I’m Supposed to Be,” a rough and apprehensive affirmation on striving to become his best self and to “Take life seriously/ Laugh in the face of death.”
Four years is a long break in studio releases for Callahan, but it hasn’t been idle time. Beyond last year’s few curious collaborations with Noah Cyrus and The Holy Grail, an archival release of Smog’s 2001 Peel Session, the artist released the inventive, career-spanning live album Resucitate! in 2024. His dynamic backing on that album, featuring guitarist Matt Kinsey, tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White, returned to lend their angular and expressive sound to My Days of 58; Callahan says those shows proved “that they could handle anything I threw at them”:
“Improv/unpredictability/the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music,” he continued in a press release. “It’s all about listening to yourself and others. A lot of the best parts of a recording are the mistakes—making them into strengths, using them as springboards into something human.”
Callahan recorded the basic songs of My Days of 58 with just White, then individually tracked the other players, including fiddle from Richard Bowden, piano from Pat Thrasher, bass from Chris Vreeland, trombone from Mike St. Clair and pedal steel from Bill McCullough. This process lends a knowing closeness to the lead single’s cutting rock that lines up with his lived-in storytelling. He calls the project his “living room record,” then underscores, “I’m not talking about fidelity at all here. Living room attitude. Living room vibe. Not too loud, not otherworldly. I asked for the horns to be relaxed like someone on the couch playing, not a blast from heaven or hell.”
My Days of 58 is available to pre-order and pre-save now. Read on for the album’s full tracklist.
My Days of 58 – Bill Callahan:
01 “Why Do Men Sing”
02 “The Man I’m Suppoised To Be”
03 “Pathol O.G.”
04 “Stepping Out For Air”
05 “Lonely City”
06 “Empathy”
07 “West Texas”
08 “Computer”
09 “Lake Winnebago”
10 “Highway Born”
11 “And Dream Land”
12 “The World is Still”
