muzycy:
Bill Callahan (vocals, guitar, piano, Hammond B-3 organ, synthesizer).
Additional personnel: Ken Champion (pedal steel guitar)
Thymme Jones (trumpet, piano, drums)
Donna Maroni (French horn)
James O'Rourke (hurdy gurdy, piano, Hammond B-3 organ, bass, drums)
Matt Weston, Robot (drums)
Editor's Info:
Like WILD LOVE and KNOCK KNOCK, RED APPLE FALLS represents the more elaborate side of Bill Callahan's discography. His outsider/loser image is still perfectly intact, but it is shaped here with a more expansive sonic palette. Everything from French horn and pedal steel to hurdy gurdy is employed on these unassumingly poetic tales of self-loathing. There's a larger cast than usual at work here, and the denser musical texture may be the reason Callahan's lyrical self-deprecation seems more like an artistic device than a desperate cry in the wilderness. The use of more natural, organic imagery in the songs, however, adds an extra level of depth to the subtle, carefully constructed lyrics.
Q (6/97, p.139) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...[Bill] Callahan lures you in, only to break you on the rocks of his seemingly inescapable depression. Another field day then, for fans of weepy minimalism."
Option (7-8/97, p.128) - "...[Leader Bill Callahan] has decisively freed Smog from the clutch of lo-fi and introduced it to the mature world of fine-tuned fidelity....all the unabashed musicality of a deliberately well-produced album."