"Why's everybody looking at me Like there's something fundamentally wrong" Early Smog albums consisted of little more than out of tune (and time) guitar bashing and even more out of tune (and time) singing (complemented ever so often with some tragically scratchy violin). Over many many years Bill Callahan has learnt how to play his guitar (in a basic blues style or slow - and I mean slow - fingerpicking style) and scaled back the vocal 'eccentricities' and left himself with little more than a talking blues routine, but what remains the same are the damaging songs themselves. Music as therapy has never been rawer. There's no doubt that Bill Callahan really just needs to get out of the house and meet real people (especially of the opposite sex) and he would be a lot better off, but (call me selfish) I'm hoping he stays a bruised and broken soul. Those of you who have been with him for the long run will be eager to know that the latest album is a return to the sparse sound captured on "The Doctor Came At Dawn" (however nothing near as sparse as 'Hangman Blues'). If there's a formula to Smog's sound then it's simply heartbreak - the amazing capacity to stop you in your tracks with a sound: and last track here ("Let Me See The Colts") is surely that - a song about wanting to see next year's horses this year so he can back them early and make a fortune (read: can love be guaranteed?) is stunning. It's more than stunning actually. It's up there with only a dozen or so Smog songs of the past. Nothing more needs to be said. ______________________________________________________________________

The first SMOG aka BILL CALLAHAN release in two years, 'A River Ain't Too Much To Love' was recorded at WILLIE NELSON's Perdernale's studio in Spicewood, Texas, and THE DIRTY THREE's JIM WHITE drums up a quiet storm. Also features the piano playing of JOANNA NEWSOM. Smog evokes the ethos and poetry of spooky American folk and country music without ever actually playing them in his own tomes, using mainly waltzes to frame them. 'A River Ain't Too Much To Love' is as raw and direct as a SUN SESSION and as warm and assured as the early seventies. The shadow of the tall man hangs over this record. 'A River Ain't Too Much To Love' is bothpart and departure of the Great American Musical experience.