A River Ain't Too Much to Love
Drag City, 2005
rating: 4/5
reviewer: marti332


That Bill Callahan chose to record A River Ain't Too Much to Love in Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio makes perfect sense when you think about it. If you've been paying attention, you've noticed Smog (gone are the parentheses, he said parenthetically) turning more and more into a hermetic Red Headed Stranger, dating at least as far back as Knock Knock. A River Ain't Too Much to Love finds this transformation coming to a head, for better and for worse.

Like Willie's work, the songs on A River are built around a nylon-sting guitar, with understated and sparse accompaniment (most notably percussion from Jim White). "The Well" takes the Nelson comparison one step further, casting Callahan as a story-teller in the vein of the great country balladeers. "In the Pines" finds Smog reinterpreting a traditional piece in his own unique style (Stardust or The Troublemaker, anyone?).

The connection to Willie arises largely from their shared Southern roots, which Callahan seems fixated on. "Drinking at the Dam" recalls the times of Callahan's good-ole-boy youth, and "Palimpsest" finds him asking why everyone's looking at him "Like a southern bird/ Whose stayed north too long?" This is not to say that A River sounds like a Willie Nelson album; through it all, Smog remains distinctly... well, Smog. The minimalist arrangements are still here. The bored baritone voice hasn't changed any. The personal-yet-guarded lyrics can be found throughout. In point of fact, even the most unfamiliar listener would have no trouble telling that "I'm New Here" was recorded by the same man who recorded "I Was A Stranger."

"I Feel Like the Mother of the World," perhaps the best song on the album, extends a parent/child metaphor into one of the better anti-war songs in recent memory. "Oh, do I feel/ Like the Mother of the World/ With two children/ Fighting" is the kind of clever (but not too clever) line found repeatedly throughout A River Ain't Too Much to Love. It's also the kind of line that very few can deliver credibly, much like Willie referring to love as being "like a dying ember." Fortunately for fans, Callahan's distinctive style is well-suited to the task.

1. Palimpsest
2. Say Valley Maker
3. Well, The
4. Rock Bottom Riser
5. I Feel Like The Mother Of The World
6. In The Pines
7. Drinking At The Dam
8. Running The Loping
9. I'm New Here
10. Let Me See The Colts