BILL CALLAHAN
FRIDAY 3/10. Clapp Auditorium, Fayetteville. 8 p.m. $27.50.
Because Bill Callahan — a singer-songwriter who’s been steadily releasing well-received folk albums since the ’90s, sometimes under the name Smog — sings in an understated, nearly monotone voice, his lyrical genius can go undetected. And even if you’ve been primed to give extra attention to his words, it’s not their complicatedness that will arrest you. Instead, you’ll likely be stopped in your tracks by his peculiar gaze, transfixed by the infinite wisdom of his simple, nature-heavy imagery.
In perhaps his most popular track, “Jim Cain,” he wonders “how much of a tree bends in the wind” and “how can a wave possibly be.” These questions initially sound sensical and scientific, but they’re posed at such an angle so as to never be completely answerable. Ponder alongside Callahan at Clapp Auditorium in Fayetteville, a modest space stuffed with wooden pews at the top of Mount Sequoyah. Tickets are running low, but still available here.
