Bill Callahan Apocalypse (2011)

Jim McCarty is a legendary Rock 'N Roll guitarist who has a deep passion for the Blues. This album captures McCarty playing "live" impromptu jams with Blues greats Duke Robillard, Jimmy Thackery, Johnny A, John Nemeth, Jason Ricci, John Badanjek, and The Millionaires. Besides his signature Les Paul Gibson, McCarty, plays SG's and Telecasters. Styles range from jump-to back alley-to slide blues. He's plays in duo, band, and big band formats. This CD shows sides of McCarty not previously captured. It's a showcase for his passion, skill, and depth as a Blues guitarist! James William McCarty is an American blues rock guitarist from Detroit, Michigan. He has performed with Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, the Buddy Miles Express, Cactus, The Rockets, the Detroit Blues Band, and more recently, Mystery Train. Since about 2014 Jim McCarty has joined forces with Detroit blues guitarist/songwriter Kenny Parker in The Kenny Parker Band along with several other veteran Detroit blues/rock musicians.

Few songwriters have Bill Callahan’s eye for wry detail: “Like motel curtains, we never really met,” the singer-songwriter declares on “Angela,” using his weather-worn baritone. On his first studio album in five years—an unusually long gap for Callahan—one of the enduring voices in alternative music continues to pare back the extraneous in his sound. A noise musician and mighty mumbler when he broke through under the moniker of Smog in the early 1990s, Callahan now favors minimal indie-folk brushstrokes such as a guitar strum, a sighing pedal steel guitar, or simply barely audible room ambience. The 20 songs here insinuate themselves with bittersweet melodies and a conversational tone, and they’re a strong reminder of Callahan's dry sense of humor: “The panic room is now a nursery,” the recently married new father sings on “Son of the Sea.” But if he’s comparatively settled in life, Callahan still knows how to hit an unnerving note with a matter-of-fact ease.