For the 20th anniversary of the Smog album, A River Ain’t Too Much to Love, we take a detailed look at how it was made. Bill Callahan began recording music under the name Smog in 1988 and releasing music on his own label, Disaster. After signing with Drag City early on, he released a series of albums in the 1990s and continued into the early 2000s. At this point, he was living in Chicago and wanted a change of scenery. After moving to Austin, Texas, he began writing songs for his 11th album. He decided to abandon the Smog name and start using his real name, but Drag City asked him to wait until the next record before making that change. After a two week tour with Jim White on drums and Connie Lovatt on bass, the three of them immediately went into Willie Nelson’s studio, Pedernales, to begin recording the album. A River Ain’t Too Much to Love was eventually released in 2005.

In this episode, Bill Callahan reflects on this period of his life when he was in his late thirties and felt like he wanted to settle down. By moving to Austin and buying a house with a yard, he found himself spending a lot more time in nature, which greatly impacted the songs he was writing. Despite having writer’s block initially, his songwriting opened up when he bought a nylon string guitar and taught himself fingerpicking for the first time. This new approach to guitar playing really shaped the song arrangements and how his vocal would come across. Callahan describes how this transitional time in his life inspired him to give up the Smog name and start using his own name to reflect his newfound approach to making music. From the leap of moving somewhere without knowing anyone, to recording as a power trio, to the importance of a good title or central image, to taking inspiration from Mickey Newbury and Johnny Cash, to key overdubs by Joanna Newsom and Thor Harris, to a recording malfunction that lead to barely audible bass, to the lacking nature of waltz time, to a clear sound like a river, we’ll hear the stories of how the record came together.

Rebecca Buchanan

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