Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest
by Bill Callahan

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Bill Callahan bestography
Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest is ranked 5th best out of 28 albums by Bill Callahan on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Bill Callahan is Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle which is ranked number 1907 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 885.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest on YouTube
Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest rankings
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 5 hours ago).
Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest collection
Showing all 20 members who have this album in their collection
Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 85 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/30/2026 14:15 | jon5417 | 4,097 | 68/100 |
| ! | 07/11/2026 03:32 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,356 | 70/100 |
| ! | 05/02/2026 12:33 | JacobMullis | 776 | 88/100 |
| ! | 02/19/2026 05:03 | Proto | 4,237 | 33/100 |
| ! | 12/28/2025 07:54 | MaxStorm98 | 3,798 | 89/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 72.9/100, a mean average of 72.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 73.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.7.
Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest favourites
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Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest comments
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Man, i got this album so wrong initially. It is now my favourite album of 2019. There you have it. Always give albums time or else you may be discarding a potential fave. Genius.
Some really good rhythm, some really good lyrics … great album!
Totally stripped back sound. The voice is reminiscent of Cohen and Lightfoot. Nothing offensive and there are some really sweet moments
I agree that it is the same song over and over for an hour, but goddamn is it a fucking great song. There's not a ton of dynamic range, but Callahan finds new layers and ideas track after track. If you want a beautiful, poignant folk epic, this one doesn't disappoint.
Well, this a bit of a difficult one, isn't it? It's probably his most challenging album to date. The main problem is that with twenty songs in just over an hour the album is too long and too plodding. Almost every track avoids a conventional melody and the all the songs sound too similar to each other while Callahan sings in that same deadpan phrasing pretty much all the way through. There are some good tracks here and there but even they get kind of lost amongst all the other songs. I feel that this album will grow on me but for now the record is too meandering and loose. Meandering and loose has of course always been a constant positive in Bill Callahan's music but here it kind of feels like everything outstays it's welcome even though the songs are relatively short. Yes, frustrated, but I'll stick with it a while longer yet. It's just that even by Bill Callahan standards I've never felt this initial, shall I dare say disappointment, before. I hate to use the word disappointment in reference to a Bill Callahan album but for now I am. But I shall stick with it hoping that it will eventually click. Or not.
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