The Retread Sessions encourage musicians to ‘re-examine and reconstruct songs outside of the traditional performance locales’. I discovered the project on a tangential path through youTube links nearly a full year after the projects inception. The Retread Films are always rewarding but none more so than two performances by Bill Callahan.
There’s a solemn and plaintive beauty with which Callahan sets up a mike stand overlooking the valley and pitches ‘Vessel In Vain’ and ‘Nothing Rises To Meet Me’ into the empty space around him. I’ve listed Smog in similarly pastoral settings, either through tinny iPod buds or my own cerebral loop tape. So it was moving to find two films that reflected the appeal of Callahan’s art so acutely - A reminder that with a bit of curatorial focus film can lend more than visibility or decoration to a songwriters craft.
The Retread Sessions
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