Billy Callahan/The Pictish Trail
ABC2, Glasgow (02/05/2007)
In the red corner: The Johnny Lynch led Fence Collective tag team that is The Pictish Trail. Featuring James Yorkston and King Creosote, tonight they are practically a beginners’ guide to what exactly they’re feeding them in the Easy Neuk of Fife. And, the music kinda does that too. Nestling somewhere between the traditional and the avant, the slight songs seem to exist purely to facilitate the jamming parts. Which is understandable, because it’s when the instrumental passages seem to hit some kind of groove that the pieces slot into place. So, patchy with some flashes of brilliance - as I said a beginners’ guide…
In the blue corner: The slim hips and lizard lips of Billy “The Smog” Callahan!
When Callahan dropped the name Smog to allow him to produce an album with no preconceptions, it left many folk scratching their heads. When Woke
on a Whaleheart turned up, it sounded…well, like Smog really.
However, tonight in close relief to older material it makes a bit more sense.
As ever, he’s brought with him a band that seem to get less and less instrument to play the more of them there are. It’s as if he dedicates some much time to the space in his music that if another instrumentalist is introduced, he needs to nick a few cymbals off the drummer to keep it roomy. And, it works. As soon as they strike up, they can’t be anyone but Smo…Bill Callahan’s band.
Although the whole of the new album gets an outing, the earlier part of the set is a cluster of old favourites. None of the ones the audience are shouting for, mind. But, each gets a roof-raising holler of familiarity when it starts. Rock Bottom Riser stands out as still the best song Echo & The Bunnymen never wrote. Or to move it to a modern parlance, the spot that Arcade Fire keep missing.
However, it’s the new stuff that is the revelation. This all starts with near-funky single Diamond Dancer? Did I just see him crack as smile? Must be mistaken. By the time he’s reached the understated boogie of A Man Needs A Woman Or A Man To Be A Man, hang on, he’s practically dancing! Hey, so are we.
[obligatory naff simile] So as the smog clears, Bill Callahan is looking at the world with renewed wide eyed wonder, and seems to like what he sees.
Tony Kiernan
