Bill Callahan

A troubadour of every day life, Bill Callahan is a singer-songwriter with a long history and a deep catalog that is impressive both in its longevity and the songwriting skills on display. He started out under the moniker Smog back in 1990 before switching to his given name around 2007. The first phase of his career established him in the '90s as an overtly experimental artist who kept a dissonant edge and explored unconventional song structures and arrangements in a way that still holds up as a bold and refreshing body of work decades later. The second phase came more or less on his 2000 album Dongs of Sevotion, where he moved towards a more mainstream, bluesy underground style. His music remained fairly consistent from there on out, except for gradually mutating into a folk-oriented, acoustic sound that can be reminiscent of Leonard Cohen at times in terms of its overall feel, his baritone voice, and the deeply personal nature of his songs.