In about a month, the great American songwriter Bill Callahan will release his new album My Days Of 58. He introduced the project to us with the self-portrait “The Man I’m Supposed To Be,” then followed it by looking outward with “Lonely City.” He’s got a third advance track out now.
Making exceptional use of Callahan’s band, “Stepping Out For Air” seems to be constantly morphing without making a big show of it. “I watched the sky turn from blue to gray,” Callahan begins. “I think I’m going to rain today.” Personifying himself as an environmental phenomenon? A likely thing for Bill Callahan to do. The song is elegant yet rough in the way so many of Callahan’s songs turn out to be, with a sense of humor but also a sense of the weight of the world. Apparently this one’s been simmering for a decade and a half:
This is the song with the oldest origins on the album, tho it was never fully finished until just before the 58 sessions.
It existed in some form about 15 years ago when it was intended as part of a record I planned to make with Jim White and Warren Ellis. Logistics seemed impossible because Warren was on endless Nick Cave tours so that project evaporated. Maybe it’ll form as a rain cloud and rain down on us someday.
I held on to the song and it finally found a home on this record as the world cycled back into it having relevance. I like this song. It feels good.
Listen below.
