quiet paws.

Some people you just love forever and ever.

For me one of those people is Bill Callahan – an amazing artist of the musical variety. While I’ve never met the man himself, I have loved his musical creations since the very first moment I heard his wonderful voice. I remember that moment clearly… It was a crazy hot summer day, I had just arrived at my destination after a seriously long drive in a non-airconditioned car. Just as I was about to exit the vehicle, a song came onto the radio which persuaded me to linger a little longer despite the heat of the car. I was transfixed – that song was Our Anniversary.

Bill Callahan (who has also performed as Smog) released a new album a few months back (Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle), and my recent music buying laziness has meant that I’ve only just this week purchased a copy.

Not that you’re supposed to judge a book (or an album) by its cover or anything so shallow – but just look at this one (the slight overexposure of the picture, the horses, the font … it’s just all so lovely, lovely). Just as I had hoped and expected this album doesn’t disappoint. In some ways this album is a more sophisticated and layered album than earlier efforts, but it still manages to share this ‘bigger’ sound in a very simplistic way.

I have a feeling that to really appreciate Callahan’s musical appeal you may have to be a little older, a little wiser, or perhaps simply to have ‘lived some life’. There is such intimate beauty to be found in the imperfection of his voice, and much emotional significance to savour within and between his poetic words. Perhaps you will fall in love too?

Well hello there. It sure is nice to see you passing through. Hopefully you’ll linger for a while and spend some time.

He wishes for the cloths of heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.
WB Yeats.

This is a poem which I have only recently discovered, but I feel as if I have always known it. I love making connections like that. Such things speak to our souls.

I’m a firm believer that soulmates of all different types find us as we travel through life. Whether in the form of a movie, a person, a book, a song or a poem, these soulmates serve to inspire, motivate or reinvigorate our lives.

Sometimes we neglect them, but when you least expect to find one, or when you most need one, there a soulmate will be.