Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest (CD)
Bill Callahan
Amoeba Review
08/06/2020
On Bill Callahan's first new album since 2013's Dream River, the artist behind the avatar Smog ruminates on his past and having recently become a family man. Philosophical and highly personal, Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest contains his characteristic wit; he compares himself to a wandering, underdog superhero in “The Ballad of The Hulk” and delivers tongue-in-cheek lyrics in the third-person POV such as, “The beauty of the scene outside his window brings to mind for the narrator...” Still the rambling poet, Callahan's soothing baritone touches on the mysteries of life, birth and death, perhaps most successfully on the lilting track “747.”