RIVER GUARD

I have been re-listening to an old favourite of mine, Bill Callahan’s project Smog, ever since a large number of his albums were added to Spotify. I have been a fan of Smog since 1999 (which I realise is somehow, impossibly, twenty years ago) when I bought the album Knock Knock on vinyl. The song ‘Cold Blooded Old Times’ was big (in an indie, NME-single-of-the-week type way) at the time, and featured on the High Fidelity soundtrack.

I had completely forgotten the song ‘River Guard’, and as soon as I listened to it again I got shivers. It’s a truly gorgeous piece of music ( in alt-country/americana genre) that stunned me all over again. I am particularly struck by the melancholy, evocative and poetic lyrics:

When I take the prisoners swimming
They have the time of their lives
I love to watch them floating
On their backs
Unburden and relaxed

I sit in the tall grass and look the other way
And when I hall them in they always say
"Our sentences will not be served

We are constantly on trial
It's a way to be free
We are constantly on trial
It's a way to be free"

Most nights I go for a drive
To to the highest place I can find
Stand there on a cliff with goose flesh
Watching the wind rip the leaves of the trees
Death defying
Every breath
Death defying

Soon we all be back in the yard
Behind the wall
Leaving heart
Dreaming of cool rivers and tall grass

We are constantly on trial
It's a way to be free
We are constantly on trial
It's a way to be free

Have a listen here: