Bill Callahan’s New Video Is a Charming Homage to New York City

Bill Callahan has shared “Lonely City,” the second single from his February-bound album My Days of 58. The music video comprises a photo montage compiled by the street photographer Daniel Arnold, who documents the hubbub, glamor, camaraderie, isolation in crowds, small joys, small horrors, and seedy underbelly of New York in a photo series shot over the course of 15 years. Watch it below.

In a press release, Callahan describes his longtime dilemma over writing a song about a city, rather than people:

“‘Lonely City’ is a song I’ve been meaning to write for decades. It has been inside me that long. I tend to focus my writing on humans and the spirit within. So writing about concrete and steel felt like a no go. Like I’m going to write a song about a car next?

But of course cities are made by humans so they are human, too.

You have a relationship with them, like friends. 

You get mad at them when you get a parking ticket, you love them when they offer you a nice meal. 

It’s a song acknowledging all this.”

The first single from My Days of 58, which is out February 27, was “The Man I’m Supposed to Be.” The core band that plays with Callahan on the new LP is the same as that of 2024 live album Resuscitate: guitarist Matt Kinsey, tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, and drummer Jim White. Jerry David DeCicca plays tambourine on “Lonely City.”