Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Boise, Idaho
What has Beyonce wrought?
Seems everyone is going country, everyone from octogenarian Ringo to young kids putting their first single into the world and hoping to be the next Kaylee or Luke.
Will Oldham (AKA Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) has sailed close to country music many times in the past three decades, most obviously on his 2004 Sings Greatest Palace Music recorded in Nashville with session musicians.
Usually he's been described as alt.country or alt.folk, but here – back in Nashville with co-writing guests (John Anderson, the late John Prine's son Tommy and Tim O'Brien among them) – he's in full, reflective folk-country mode.
Not so much alt. about it, especially when banjo and fiddle come out for barroom complaint of Tonight with the Dogs I'm Sleeping.
Mostly however these are quiet, measured ruminations on life (Downstream, Is My Living in Vain?) and love (the moving Boise, Idaho and moody Sometimes It's Hard to Breathe).
Understated arrangements for strings and pedal steel on subtle, lovely songs with moral clarity.
A palate cleanser if you've been chewing on Squid.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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