Texas-based songwriter Bill Callahan recorded for fifteen years under the name Smog but, since releasing his first album under his own name in 2007, he has gradually shed the murkier indie-rock connotations of Smog and broadened into an acclaimed bard of minimalist Americana. He sings of cattle, horses, birds and rivers in stoic vision quests favouring stark imagery and pastoral settings.

Over four albums post-Smog, Callahan has emerged as a more universal voice, albeit exploring the odder corners of the country and folk map. Yet he still carries a stiff inscrutability about him on stage. Pale pants and jacket matching his whitening hair, Callahan came to Hamer Hall to play for a fan-base that has steadily ballooned in size over the half-decade since his last visit to Australia.