Austin outré Americana expert Bill Callahan will return with a new full-length on January 21. His essential end-of-day drifter Dream River handily made SPIN’s 50 Best Albums of 2013 list, and so we’re more than pleased to hear he’s in fact revisiting the those eight fine songs for a dub version of the entire set. It’s not a total surprise, of course. This summer Callahan released “Expanding Dub,” a sopping-wet psychedelic re-imagining of “Javelin Unlanding” backed with “Highs in the Mid-40’s Dub,” which took on Dream River closer “Winter Road.” Find the track list below, which appears to follow the order of the original.
Our gracious host — SPIN visited Callahan at his home this year — also spilled some of his dub philosophy in an email interview with The Quietus earlier this year:
Dub is a spiritual, abstract, visceral, mystical thing. Finite and infinite at the same time. Deeply rooted in the earth and in outer space. It was invented in Jamaica and no one else really messes with it as it is greatly abetted when the original song has a reggae rhythm, which my songs largely do not. My reason for doing it is simply for the fact that I love dub music (from 70s Jamaica only)! It’s a genre that has come and gone. I don’t think the digital age will usher in a new appreciation for it. It’s a pensive [music] and [it is] body music. Neither of which I think are characteristics of this digital age.
For another wonderful dub of recent vintage, check out Matthew E. White’s version of Howard Ivans’ “Red Face Boy.” Also, bear witness to Callahan’s entire set at a Washington D.C. synagogue, which occasionally veers into the cosmos.
Bill Callahan, Have Fun With God track list:
1. “Thank Dub”
2. “Expanding Dub”
3. “Small Dub”
4. “Call It Dub”
5. “Ride My Dub”
6. “Summer Dub”
7. “Transforming Dub”
8. “Highs in the Mid-40’s Dub”
