It’s been some time, but Bill Callahan (Smog) connoisseurs, who are purveyors of good taste, can champion the new music that’s been released. Callahan shares “Stepping Out For Air,” the final single off his new record, My Days of 58 (Drag City), which is set to drop on February 27, 2026.

“Stepping Out for Air” sits underneath overcast skies, where Bill considers “a walk among the Zoloft pines” and beauty in the little things. Dotted with small jokes, little asides, and a prayerful phrase or two — and blown down the path by the gentle breezes of his horn section — Bill’s song rises up from murmurs of quietude, taking form as a ballad before riding out at great heights of spiritual abidance. It’s a song that Bill has had ready and waiting for some time. As he tells it:

“This is the song with the oldest origins on the album, tho it was never fully finished until just before the 58 sessions. 

It existed in some form about 15 years ago when it was intended as part of a record I planned to make with Jim White and Warren Ellis. Logistics seemed impossible because Warren was on endless Nick Cave tours so that project evaporated. Maybe it’ll form as a rain cloud and rain down on us someday. 

I held on to the song and it finally found a home on this record as the world cycled back into it having relevance. I like this song. It feels good.”