We’ve got plenty of reasons to run from our demons — and a plethora of Americana songs that deal with that theme literally and figuratively. But what if we make friends with them instead? Katie Callahan’s new song “Magnificent Beast (Keep It All Together)” answers that question with warmth and cheekiness.
The Baltimore-based Callahan returns after her triumphant The Water Comes Back (2021), produced by Jars of Clay’s Matthew Odmark. Breaking free from a failed marriage and a narrow definition of faith, The Water Comes Back and Callahan’s follow-up EXTRAORDINARY (which came out one June 2nd) find a creative person fully embracing her power.
It’s not always easy to get there, though.
“‘Magnificent Beast'”‘ is a song about anxiety. I spend a lot of time worrying about… well… everything, from what I should wear outside to identity theft, and I think it’s pretty easy to dismiss all of that as a character flaw or something I should overcome,” Callahan jokes. “There’s some wisdom there, sure–don’t be frozen by fear and all that–but I wanted to write a song acknowledging anxiety as something big and scary and also pretty human that’s there on some level to keep us safe. It’s not something I have to outrun so much as something to be curious about. Personifying ‘fear’ and ‘taking my Fear on the road’ is part of learning how to live with it as a companion.”
Callahan chose a lighter tone, inspired by Brandi Carlile’s “You and Me on the Rock.”
” I love to write about difficult things–infertility, depression, miscarriage–because they’re that tricky combination of taboo and also very common. Once I heard the author Sonya Renee Taylor say, ‘Your suffering is not unique,’ which maybe can seem dismissive, but for me, it felt like an invitation to some sort of community of compassion and out of loneliness,” says Callahan.
Making the video stands in sharp contrast to that isolation.
“Honestly, that Fear stuffy is probably my best purchase of 2023 so far!”
EXTRAORDINARY is available on all streaming platforms now.
Just enchanting!!
My late husband and I were friends of Tony’s and I was thrilled to see him again for the first time in years sometime ago at Charleston..with my daughter Catherine