Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest

Through a slightly distorted vocal, reminiscent of his early Smog albums, Callahan begins Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest with a nod to a previous album by singing ‘the pines of where did you sleep,’ from 2005's A River Ain't too Much to Love. The references are there because this is a record celebrating life and unafraid of time; it is an expanse of songs that feels like a necessary splurge from Callahan's mind, having experienced marriage, birth and death since 2013's stuffier Dream River.

The music is beautifully loose, with minimal acoustic accompaniments helping along Callahan's nylon-string guitar, which is fitting as these 20 songs were originally solo creations. The mood is light and content and his relief at rediscovering the passion for songwriting, after a heavy dose of writer's block, peppers the set: ‘it feels good to be writing again / clear water flows from my pen!’ The signature dry humour is present, but, as Callahan takes us through bloody fairy tales, declarations of love, and life observations, the cynicism has largely been replaced by wide-eyed wonder.