Saturday, March 17   8:30 p.m.
Central Presbyterian Church   (200 E 8th St)

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In 1987 Bill Callahan of Smog went on a freighter cruise.
“I don’t know if you know what these are,” Bill says, “It’s
these barges you see out in the ocean that don’t ever look like
they’re moving. They are full of cinnamon or raw wicker, some
cargo like that, and they sell a few berths. There were spaces
for seven passengers on the one I went on. For six weeks I was
on that thing with my cousin Lee, a couple retirees with absolutely
nothing to do and a guy who turned out to be a famous
crime novelist who was there to work on his next book. My
parents had insisted that I needed to cool my wheels because
I was getting into some trouble, as was Lee. So we went to
Papeete, Tuamotu, Suva.
When we finally pulled back into Baltimore’s harbor, I was
struck by one thing: the smog. The skyscrapers came in a close
second, but they sort of looked like seashells to me. The seashells
I’d been collecting at all the ports. But the smog made
me say, ‘I live in smog.’ And that stuck with me. I had been
writing some ‘instant songs’ while on the journey, short things
i could dilute the sea fever with.
When I got home my parents presented me with a bill for 2
grand so I decided to make a record to make some quick cash.
Four years later I had the two grand to pay them back.
That was my first album, SEWN TO THE SKY, which came
out in 1990.
I was like a caged animal set free after that. Roaming the
world with a variety of pick-up bands and making a record wherever I could."