Bill Callahan’s wild country, last night at RecordBar

Despite his car-dealer name, Bill Callahan is a pretty odd dude – I’d argue he’s one of the strangest characters in modern American music. Last night at RecordBar, Callahan took the stage with his band – a guitarist and a bassist, both of whom sat in chairs throughout the set – and gave the robust-for-a-Wednesday crowd more or less what it came for. In Callahan’s case, that means folk-and-country songs, an unnervingly calm baritone and some of the weightiest words put to music in the past two decades.