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In the late 90s/early 00s, Smog went through a gimmick period while trying to follow up Red Apple Falls, using a children's choir on Knock Knock followed by Ally McBeal-style backup singers on Dongs of Sevotion followed by a subtle name change on Rain On Lens. Discussion of Callahan's work focused on these gimmicks instead of the great, gimmick-less songs of the era like "River Guard" and "Nineteen." While there is a gimmick to A River Ain't Too Much To Love, in the end all this gimmick amounts to is simplicity and directness, two of the key elements that made Smog great to begin with.

The gimmick of the new record is that it was recorded in Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studios, and the spirit of Willie and great country music permeates through this album, in lyric, instrumentation, and style. The album opens up with a song devoted to Callahan's return to the South for this recording. Atop a beautiful acoustic guitar part, Callahan sings "Why's everybody looking at me? ... Like a Southern bird who's stayed North too long." Callahan shares his unease with Northern life, especially the weather, closing the song with the beautiful prose "Winter exposes the nests and I'm gone."

When the album sounds most like Nelson and other country greats, it is least successful. As if in front of Folsom County Prison, Callahan introduces "The Well" by saying "This one's called 'The Well.'" Callahan's guitar is a rambling hoedown, which is backed by simple percussive fiddle playing. The song drags on far too long at 7 minutes as Callahan tells an involved story about finding a well that seems to center on guilt and selfishness. "In the Pines" also has a more traditional country style as Callahan plays a gentle strum and sings a fable about simple backwoods life, with whistling and brushed drumwork fleshing out the sound. Ultimately, these songs feel like style pieces, and seem less open and candid than other songs on the album.

The metaphor contained in the album's title relates to the song "Say Valley Maker." Love is related to a river, growing and receding, carving out the terrain and creating lush valleys, but possibly drying out eventually, leaving the valley barren. Powered by a repetitive guitar part, Callahan meditates on the necessity for imperfection in love, "There is no love where there is no bramble, there is no love on the hacked-away plateau, and there is no love in the unerring." While the song is likely inspired by a breakup and is filled with frustration (the song's title an anathema to the lover - the "valey maker"), in the end, it is optimistic. When love and the river dries up, he asks his love to bury him in the river bed so he can be reborn, ending the song with the powerful stanza: "So bury me in wood and I will splinter, bury in stone and I will quake, bury me in water and I will geyser, bury me in fire and I'm gonna phoenix, I'm gonna phoenix."

The metaphor of a river is also used effectively in "Rock Bottom Riser," where Callahan thanks all of those who helped him when he was at his lowest point. He sings of a foolish pursuit for money, which left him in hopeless despair. Creating excellent imagery, he chases gold rings by diving after them into the river, but when he reaches the bottom empty handed, he is left to search for the sun for the way back up, its rays breaking apart into the very rings he was chasing. Callahan's slow electric guitar strum portrays his sadness, and as the action of the story builds, guest piano from Joanna Newsom (sorry, no harp) adds intensity to the tone.

The album's most forceful and "rock" song is album closer "Let Me See the Colts." Jim White of the Dirty Three plays drums on most of the album, but here he really lets loose. With childlike enthusiasm, Callahan's guitar builds and build as he sings of going to see horses as they prepare for a race, and when they finally get to "See the Colts," the whole song quiets as he sings "Is there anything as still as sleeping horses?" While the loud-quiet-loud dynamic is overused, never has it been more effectively matched in lyric, and Callahan's joy is contageous, the song leaving me with just as big a grin on my face as he must have had.

The inspiration of country music on A River Ain't Too Much to Love is largely positive. While Callahan tries out some style pieces, which are less successful making the album a little uneven, the directness, honesty, and color of Smog's music is as potent as it ever has been. There's perhaps four songs that would rank among Callahan's best and is thus essential to anyone interested in all things Smog.

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