CD Odyssey Disc 1769: Bonnie Prince Billy

I saw the tour that supported this next album last year, but didn’t have the record yet and so I couldn’t review it at that time. However, if you also want to hear about the show it is at the bottom of an Abbie Gardner review. Read it at Disc 1641.

Disc 1769 is…Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy

Year of Release: 2023

What’s up with the Cover? Looks like a restaurant. As album covers go this one doesn’t inspire me so much as make me hungry. Good thing I’m headed out for brunch after I post this.

How I Came To Know It: I already liked Bonnie Prince Billy so this was me buying his latest record. I’d also heard a few of the songs live, as noted above.

How It Stacks Up: Counting his two collaborations with Matt Sweeney (which I do) but not counting his compilation of Greatest Palace Music (which I love, but don’t count for stacking) I have seven Bonnie Prince Billy albums. This amounts to about a third of his records. Of those seven (if you just said, ‘which seven?’ please try to keep up) I put “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You in at #4, which is respectable.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

I didn’t always know what Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) was talking about on “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You” but he definitely wasn’t keeping secrets. The album is raw and fragile and unafraid to show the inner workings of the human heart, in all its wonder and weirdness.

If you’re not familiar with Bonnie Prince Billy, he is a folk singer who looks like a drifter, but sings with a gentle, wispy head voice making you feel like you’re in the presence of an angel. The angel is sometimes soothing and reassuring and sometimes more of a blood and thunder apocalypse, but in either incarnation you’ll feel privileged that he’s willing to share this curious mix of inspiration and uncertainty with us mere mortals. I’m told angels don’t usually open up like that.

“Keeping Secrets…” starts out strong, and “Like It Or Not” is one of my favourite Bonnie Prince Billy songs on this or any of his albums. It opens with:

“Everyone walks to a certain point then turns around;
how far you go just depends on the time that you got.
Time is a killer like its good buddies love, light and sound.
There’s not enough room for us both here, like it or not.
Everyone smiles when they see something rendered with justice.
Everyone laughs to dispel something bound up inside.
Everyone cries when we feel like nobody trusts us.
Everyone dies in the end so there’s nothing to hide.”

I had originally intended to just quote the first two lines, but like so many of BPB’s songs, the image continues to unwind itself in your mind, and it is hard to stop once you start paying attention.

While this is the album’s best example, other songs (“Kentucky is Water”, “Willow, Pine and Oak”) are also dripping with rich imagery. This imagery doesn’t always provide you an immediately accessible narrative to follow, so much as concepts to ponder. This, plus his application of religious imagery, makes “Keeping Secrets…” a bit like listening to a street preacher or new age prophet. It all feels like wisdom, but it’s a wisdom that requires contemplation before it reveals its secrets to you.

“Willow, Pine, and Oak” is the most straightforward of the bunch as BPB sketches character studies of three kinds of people, each rendered through comparison to a kind of tree. BPB prefers “Oak People” and I could quote him as to why, but this review would quickly become a quote fest, so I just encourage you to go and listen yourself.

BPB is not just a gentle and wise preacher, he is also a delightful kook and “Keeping Secrets…” has its fair share of the weird and wonderful. He follows up “Willow, Pine and Oak” with “Trees of Hell” which is a horror story about how trees animate and start taking revenge for humanity’s use of them. The tale ends with our narrator being disemboweled and blinded by branches, which is even creepier when juxtaposed against BPB’s angelic vocal.

“Bananas” is a song about sex where the banana is a metaphor for exactly what a banana usually implies in such situations. The song is a bit too weird for me to love, but I always admire how BPB will unapologetically talk about all the sticky parts of sexual encounters.

The production on this record is very stripped down, which is how I like it, and is mostly just the Bonnie Prince and his acoustic guitar, with occasional additions of strings or horn to add colour and variation.

Overall, the record is uneven, with about a third of it being some of the best songs BPB has ever written, and a lot of the others being just OK. Hence the three stars, but it was a thoughtful and enjoyable three-star journey, and I recommend it.

Best tracks:  Like It Or Not, Behold Be Held!, Kentucky is Water, Willow Pine and Oak

CD Odyssey Disc 1641 Abbie Gardner and a concert review!

Welcome to a 2 in 1 review extravaganza! Usually before I go see a live show I break CD Odyssey rules to listen to the artist’s last album so I can review it and the concert concurrently. On Wednesday night I saw Bonnie Prince Billy live, but his last solo studio album dates back to 2019 (“I Made a Place”) and I already reviewed it at Disc 1404. That was September 2020 and it was hard to see anyone live back then given that whole pandemic thing that was all the rage then.

Anyway, instead of reviewing the closest thing I’ve got (his 2021 collaboration with Matt Sweeney (“Superwolves”), I’m just going to tag that onto this review.

So come for Abbie Gardner album and stay for Bonnie Prince Billy concert. Or do the opposite. Whatever works for you. If it is the latter, you’ll have to scroll down a bit.

Disc 1641 is…Wishes on a Neon Sign

Artist: Abbie Gardner

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover?  Abbie Gardner out on the town! Interestingly, this is how I used to see neon before I got glasses.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Abbie Gardner through her 2022 album, “Dobro Singer”. This was me digging backward in her catalogue to see if I liked her other stuff. Turns out, I do.

How It Stacks Up: I have two Abbie Gardner albums, and if you are following along carefully, you already know which two. “Wishes on a Neon Sign” comes in second.

Rating: 2 stars but almost 3

I just discovered Abbie Gardner, but it turns out she’s been around for a while. Originally in a folk trio in the mid-oughts called Red Molly (which I don’t know but will explore) she then went solo and released a host of independent albums. That said, you could be forgiven thinking “Wishes on a Neon Sign” was early in her career. The record has a youthful enthusiasm (good) but it also struggles to find a signature sound of its own (not so good).

Gardner is known as a talented dobro player, and that is on full display throughout. Many songs feature dobro solos, which are solid but maybe a bit too restrained, and I found myself wishing for Gardner to cut loose Molly Tuttle-style. This is a bit unfair, as Gardner makes a conscious choice to play solos that are simple but laden with emotion, choosing tone over complexity. It’s a decision that many a heavy metal soloist could learn from.

The album tries out a lot of styles, with songs that feature bluegrass, blues, jazz and traditional country. Gardner doesn’t so much as blend all these styles as dabble in them from song to song.

Country tune “Wallflower Days” reminded me favourably of Suzie Bogguss, and while I liked it Bogguss has the more powerful set of chops for these kind of bright, internal rhyme traipsers. However, it is one of the better tunes nonetheless, with Gardner pitching real emotion and joy into her vocals.

At other times, such as on “Afraid of Love” Gardner opts for an early Billie Holiday style. She hits all the notes (many of these being far from easy), but it sounds a bit too much like she’s trying on the style as a vocal challenge, rather than embodying it.

Gardner is best when she strips all the stylistic experimentation away and just lets her solid songwriting and earnest delivery carry the day. “Cold Black Water” is a simple character study with earnest metaphor and an easy narrative that is buoyed by one of her strongest vocal performances.

Equally good is “My Darkness” which is a “don’t despair” tune. Instead of telling us to lighten up, it is about confronting your darkness, understanding it and even befriending it to the point that it loses its power. This song gives Gardner a chance to belt a little as well and you get to hear the easy power in her voice which on her “Holliday-lite” tunes is buried in affectation.

Overall, I liked this record, but I didn’t feel the emotional connection that I was looking for throughout. There are standouts for sure, and enough of them that I have no regrets with my purchase, but it left me wanting just a little bit more.

Fun fact: The first time I ordered an Abbie Gardner album from Bandcamp, she sent me a message promising me a gift, but all the arrived was the CD. The second time I ordered one, she promised nothing, but sent a nifty sticker! That sticker now adorns my much-decorated lunchbox. Thanks, Abbie!

Best tracks: Starting from Scratch, Cold Black Water, My Darkness

Bonnie Prince Billy in Concert – May 10, 2023 at the Capital Ballrom, Victoria BC

OK, ready for a concert review? Here we go!

Sheila and I arrived early at the Capital Ballroom which is critical if you want one of the coveted upstairs seats with a good view of the stage. Often those seats are a mixed blessing, as you spend half the night swatting people obstructing your view away from the railing who swarm in like wasps to a steak at a late summer barbecue.

None of that this time – just a couple of nice young women who found a spot beside us on the rail and never did the aggressive lean-in once.

So ensconced, we settled in for the show, ready to nurse our one order of overpriced drinks until the lights came on.

Patricia Wolf

The opening act was Patricia Wolf, although it took a while to figure that out. She came up on stage unannounced, said nothing and proceeded to futz with a couple of synthesizer/sound board things.

It was so directionless and ambient that I assumed she was a roadie getting something ready for later. With dawning horror we began to realize that this was the opening act, and the droning noise-scapes she was cranking out was her setlist!

This led me to my next mistake – which was assuming the headliner had no formal opener, and the club owner was just letting their sister or buddy or something have thirty minutes on the stage before a captive audience. But no, having later looked up who it was on the stage, and located her Bandcamp page, where it turns out Wolf has seven albums. I checked out the first one hoping that maybe she just was having a Bob Dylan moment and experimenting on the audience, but no such luck. The album sounded exactly the same. Joke's on me I guess, since she's obviously making a career of it.

I did something at that Wednesday show that I’m not proud of. Something that I never do. I talked to my friends (albeit quietly) through Wolf’s setlist. Incredibly rude of me, but for what its worth I was not alone. Apart from a smattering of claps from some seven or eight devotees in the front row, the whole room was doing the same.

Bonnie Prince Billy

As bad as that was, Bonnie Prince Billy (real name Will Oldham) more than made up for it. This was one of the best concerts I’ve seen in years.

Like Wolf, Oldham came up on the stage in an unassuming way. There was a single folding wooden chair and a mic, and he sat down, pulled his guitar out of his case, counted frets on where to put his capo just like us amateurs do and then launched into song.

Oldham is not a hit machine. His most famous song is “I See A Darkness” and that only because Johnny Cash covered it. Rather than saving it for the end of show it was the first thing he played, with a new arrangement that refreshed it in a way that was just as good as his original or Cash’ cover. It also quieted the crowd for the almost religious experience of what was to come next.

Oldham’s vocals are a high quaver, full of truth and raw emotion. At various times he would go into a semi-yodel, or a whistle, but only rarely. For the most part he holds your attention with that signature vocal, and compelling poetic lyrics. His style is more like Gordon Lightfoot, but his ability to turn a phrase is up there with Cohen and Dylan.

The Bonnie Prince had the crowd eating out of his hand early, with sing-a-longs that he would teach us on the fly and that the audience would joyfully sing out with little urging. One of the songs involved shooting folks in various body parts, which was both fun to sing and also conflicting and troubling, as a commentary on gun violence in America. It was just as Oldham intended us to feel, I am certain.

Some of his songs were so new they were not on any album, and a couple felt like he was still workshopping them, having to refer to his lyrics sheet from time to time. At an open mic night that sort of thing is enraging. Oldham somehow made it sublime.

Oldham has around twenty albums, and I only have my six favourites, so there were times when I recognized a song and times when it was completely new to me. His delivery draws you in so completely, both experiences were equally wonderful.

Among the songs I didn’t recognize, was one about his mom that brought tears to my eyes, and another comparing types of people to types of trees (willow, fir and oak, as it happens). I sat quietly under the spell of it all, along with the rest of the audience.

Notwithstanding their understandable reaction to the drone-opener, the audience was one of the better behaved ones I’ve been part of. Ever seen clips of sixties concerts where hippies sit in awe and listen to some dude in bright red suit sing folk tunes, with rapture on their faces? It was just like that, except the singer wore a trucker hat. Later he did glam it up a bit, smearing silver glitter under his eyes and remarking, “time for a costume change”). I don’t know why he did this, but I did like it.

This was a great show and I would happily see Bonnie Prince Billy live in concert again.

CD Odyssey Disc 1404: Bonnie Prince Billy

My apologies for my absence, dear reader. A combination of an extra long weekend and a whole lot of other draws upon my time led me to being a bit slow on getting to this review.

Disc 1404 is…. I Made a Place

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? A butterfly perches on a field of brambles. There was a time when I would’ve had a good chance at identifying what kind of butterfly this is, but that knowledge has been pushed aside in favour of a bunch of other random knowledge, mostly music related.

Observant readers will note that I have indicated the album is called “I Made a Place” but the cover clearly says “I Have Made a Place.” I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but the spine of the CD case leaves out the ‘have’ as does BPB’s own bandcamp site, and the coding on the CD itself when you play it. For all those reasons, I’m going without the ‘have’.

How I Came To Know It: I like Bonnie Prince Billy, so this was just me checking out his latest release.

How It Stacks Up: Not counting “Greatest Palace Music” (which is more of a re-recorded compilation of earlier work) I now have five Bonnie Prince Billy albums. “I Made a Place is one of the best, almost knocking “Ease Down the Road” out of #1 before gracefully settling for silver. It knocks three other albums down a peg, however. Here’s the full accounting.

1. Ease Down the Road: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 927)
2. I Made a Place:  4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Lie Down in the Light: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1184)
4. I See a Darkness: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1092)
5. Superwolf: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 903)

Ratings: 4 stars

On “I Made a Place” Bonnie Prince Billy (BPB) finally lightens up. His early work can be creepy, sexy, and quite often both. But here an older and more refined BPB relaxes into pastoral country music filled with optimism and good advice. It sits well on him.

Musically, the record has the feel of a daydream, with lazily lilting melodies and rambling lighthearted reverie. It is as deep and profound as his previous works, but it feels like everything is happening in the middle of the afternoon, rather than the dead of night.

The record has an old-timey country swing, particularly when the violins kick in. It helps you settle in comfortably, but even amidst all the comfortably familiar sounds, the songs still surprise you with how they evolve musically, often taking one or two extra twists before resolving, while never feeling overwrought as a result.

It helps that Joan Shelley provides her exceptional talent on backing vocals, but the star here is and remains Bonnie Prince Billy, whose vocals have rarely sounded this good; light, feathery, and full of wispy wisdom.

The songs are mostly about how to survive life’s many twists and turns with a good-natured calm. A lot of the advice is about finding your centre and accepting responsibility for both your decisions and outlook. On “The Devil’s Throat” Billy reminds us to ground ourselves in a good place and the rest will take care of itself. On “I Have Made a Place” a minor key and ominous guitar creates a sense of unease, but Billy pilots us through with a simple mantra:

“I don’t know why I was born
But I have made a place.”

There is something deeply spiritual to each of these songs, even though they feel – at their core – secular. BPB is interested in the various decisions and outlooks that shape us and our reality, holding us to gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) account. On the ungainly-titled “Look Backward to Your Future, Look Forward to Your Past” when he sings,

"This particular assemblage of molecules and memories
Someday soon may just run out of gas.”

there is still reverence in his approach. We’ve got one life, so fill that life with all the best things you can.

Even on “Squid Eye,” which had me suspecting that BPB was turning into a Lovecraftian Deep One, there is a heart. Sure our narrator is being called inexorably to the mysteries of the ocean, but he’s quick to point out that it could be just that Aquaman was his dad, or maybe Ariel is his sister. No dread Cthulhu necessary to enjoy a swim, dear listener.

And while there is a lot less darkness on this record than on many earlier efforts, everything is just as beautiful. “I Made a Place” is a late career masterpiece for Bonnie Prince Billy. Or to use his own words on “Thick Air”:

“Now we are free (just about to be)
“And a thick air of triumph flows in.”

Best tracks: New Memory Box, The Devil’s Throat, Look Backward on Your Future Look Forward to Your Past, I Have Made a Place, Squid Eye, This is Far From Over, Thick Air

CD Odyssey Disc 1399: Joan Shelley

Yeehaw! Boston Bruins through to Round Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Once again the hero was Patrice Bergeron who has ascended to a tie with Bobby Orr as my favourite hockey player of all time.

Anyway, there are still three gruelling rounds to go, but here’s hoping we end up winning one more game than we won last year.

Disc 1399 is…. Rivers & Vessels

Artist: Joan Shelley

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover? I think it is Joan Shelley, if she were mostly composed of a collage of photos of rivers. This looks OK, with the exception of that Phantom of the Opera situation going on with her face.  

How I Came To Know It: I’m a big fan of Joan Shelley so I’m always hungry for new music from her. I discovered this record while poking around her Bandcamp page. It is only available via download, so when I finally worked up the nerve to download music for the first time, this one ended up on my order list.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Joan Shelley albums (with two more on my wishlist). “Rivers & Vessels” is really just a six-song EP, but I’m counting it anyway. It comes in at number three.

Ratings: 4 stars

Listening to Joan Shelley sing is like lying down in a mountain glade; feeling peaceful and elevated at the same time. Her tone is sweet and rich like syrup, and yet retains its power even when she’s landing notes up so high they leave many singers gasping for air.

On “Rivers & Vessels” her voice takes centre-stage even more than usual. The songs are stripped down and rustic and speak of a simpler time when you could just sit on a porch and trade songs with the neighbours.

Shelley takes that notion to heart, with four of the six songs featuring other indie folk artists, including Doug Paisley and Bonnie Prince Billy (both noted because I have other albums by them). In each case, Shelley blends her vocals beautifully in with theirs, following that grand old bluegrass tradition where no one upstages anyone else. I’m particularly fond of her work with Julia Purcell on “Magnolia.” The song’s structure matches its title in both form and lyrics; a beautiful memory that opens like a flower.

Less pleasant, but equally engaging is the dark and foreboding, “The Bridge” featuring Bonny Prince Billy (who also employs Shelley on his records). he song is about a woman returning to a bridge that was once a place of happiness in her life. Now, pregnant and abandoned she opts to leap to her death. The song leaves you hanging with an abrupt:

"My feet are moving slowly and they’re closer to the edge
Here’s where I started, and here’s where I’ll end it”

As the song abruptly cuts off, it leaves you to imagine the tragic fall that follows.

The musicianship is also excellent, particularly the guitar picking on “Pretty Little Miss.” The guitar work is provided by both Shelley and Nathan Salsburg but I don’t know who does the heavy lifting here. Whoever it is nails it.

The album ends with “Silver Whistle” a traditional Jacobite tune about the return of the Bonnie Prince to Scotland (Charlie is the Bonnie Prince this time, not Billy). Like a lot of great Jacobite tunes it is a combination of mournful and defiant. Most of the music on the EP is Americana folk or bluegrass, and this last-minute switch to Gaelic folk music could have landed oddly. Instead, Shelley’s voice instantly transports you to the misty shores of Scotland. The tune is one of hope and mystery, as the singer waits anxiously for the King to set foot back home again (spoiler alert – it doesn’t go well for him). The tune lands much more successfully,

And then, less than twenty minutes in the album is over, doing exactly what a good album should – leaving you wanting more.

Best tracks: Time Has Told Me, Magnolia, Pretty Little Miss, Silver Whistle

CD Odyssey Disc 1184: Bonnie Prince Billy

My last four music reviews have all been from either 2008 or 2018. You may be wondering why that is and the answer is…no reason! This is all random, remember?

Disc 1184 is… Lie Down in the Light

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? Just another professional wrestler grappling with a butterfly man. You know, basically a scene you’ve seen a thousand times.

How I Came To Know It: A couple years ago I did a deep dive through Bonnie Prince Billy’s discography. “Lie Down in the Light” was one that stood out. I put it on my list and eventually my patience was rewarded when a copy showed up at my local record store. Support your local record store!

How It Stacks Up:  My Bonnie Prince Billy collection consists of one compilation (which doesn’t stack up) and four studio albums (which do). Of the four studio albums, “Lie Down in the Light” comes in at #2. And since this is the last of those reviews, here’s a full recap:

1. Ease Down the Road: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 927)
2. Lie Down in the Light: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. I See a Darkness: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1092)
4. Superwolf: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 903)

Ratings: 4 stars

Bonnie Prince Billy doesn’t always appeal to me - my deep dive through 15 of his albums only yielded 5 keepers – but “Lie Down in the Light” is a reminder of just how much I like it when he lands one.

Billy’s real name is Will Oldham but don’t let the false moniker fool you; there is nothing fake about Will Oldham. “Lie Down in the Light” is another example of what he does best: gentle folksy melodies that are sneaky complicated and lyrics that are so stark in their honesty they are often uncomfortable.

Oldham’s vocals are light and airy, carrying a bit of that ‘from the faerie woods’ quality of sixties folk singers. By sight he looks plain and rough around the edges, but to hear him is to look into his soul, which is a beautiful if slightly twisted flower.

“Lie Down in the Light” is my most recent record by Oldham and comes almost ten years from his debut “I See a Darkness.” During that time Oldham hasn’t always kept my interest, but over the years he has found his voice, and where he might have murmured a song, now he sings it out. He won’t overpower you, but you can feel the confidence and conviction in the delivery.

Thematically this album didn’t seem to be about grief so much as it was about post-grief. Many of the songs are an absorption and acceptance of past darkness, not a rejection of it. Oldham looks into the spaces in our lives and sees not emptiness, but connectivity. On “Missing One” he characterizes a lost lover this way:

“But I wouldn’t trade my life

For someone’s millions

And I know you left

For a reason

And the trees and flowers

And creeks and rocks

Hold your face

With every season.”

And on “What’s Missing Is” he takes the image into musical theory:

“What’s rhythm is

Plenty of things missing

Steps taken, lips kissing

New harmony on an

Awesome scale

Meat against meat

Under sail.”

The ‘meat against meat’ image is vintage Oldham. He is a romantic but there is a part of him that always grounds his romanticism in flesh. When you listen to him sing it you know he isn’t being base; he’s just reveling in the animal condition equally as much as our ability to rise above it. He celebrates the tension between points.

On “You Want That Picture,” ex-lovers argue over how they perceive a break-up. The song is a duet of a man imagining the woman he left behind bereft, and the woman behind imagining the man callous and uncaring. Both are wrong, with each answering the false portrayal with a verse about how they feel balanced and free, both seeing beyond the moment of grief into a greater truth. Even in sadness, Oldham finds balance.

“You Want That Picture” is one of the record’s finest songs, with a big assist from guest vocalist Ashley Webber. Webber’s vocals were maddeningly familiar and when I looked her up I was not surprised to find she is the sibling of Black Mountain’s Amber Webber. Both sisters have a slight vibrato and a tone that is tough and tragic.

One quibble I have is with the CD presentation. The Disc case does not list the songs on the back, instead just saying “Twelve Songs.” There are twelve songs, but if you are listening on CD you have no idea what they are without opening up the booklet. The booklet has the songs and lyrics printed, but both are in an annoying “scrawled on a napkin” font. However, these are minor quibbles about presentation, not the music.

This isn’t a record for parties and road trips. The songs are quiet and they whisper their truths to you. The experience requires your attention. If you give it, you’ll be rewarded with some beautiful music and some concepts that have the potential to make even the most wounded spirits feel at peace.

Best tracks: Easy Does It, So Everyone, You Want that Picture, Missing One, What’s Missing Is

CD Odyssey Disc 1092: Bonnie Prince Billy

Welcome back, gentle readers! Let’s get right to the review, shall we?

Disc 1092 is…I See a Darkness

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? If you think this cover lacks cheer, wait until you hear the record.

How I Came To Know It: After being introduced to Bonnie Prince Billy I was quickly drawn to this record because it had “I See a Darkness” on it, which I knew from Johnny Cash’s cover on “American III: Solitary Man” (reviewed back at Disc 687).

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Bonnie Prince Billy albums. Of those four, I put “I See A Darkness in at third best.

Ratings: 3 stars

When an album has songs with titles like “Another Day Full of Dread” and “Death to Everyone” you shouldn’t be looking for an up-tempo joy-fest, but on “I See A Darkness” indie folk rocker Bonnie Prince Billy takes somber to a whole new level.

This is a sad, quiet record, and while there are moments of triumph, they are fleeting and spring primarily from the recognition that the world is a rough place, and we might as well celebrate while we can.

The opening track “A Minor Place” is about as upbeat as the Bonnie Prince (real name: Will Oldham) manages. It has such uplifting lines as:

“The scars of last year’s storm

Rest like maggots on my arm.”

If you were an optimist (I am) you’d note that maggots help clean a wound, so that’s…er…good news. The song is a pretty little melody where Oldham expresses that while he’s going to approach the next 38 minutes of music from a dark perspective, it’s home for him, and gives him comfort. Like the rest of the album, there is a deep frailty in the song, but at least Oldham is celebrating something.

Later on “Death to Everyone”, Oldham is pleased to note that this will in fact happen to us all. But before he gets to the punch line, Oldham describes the world’s worst date. On it people watch each other age, balls burn and the lady wears black and possibly only one shoe (also black). It is all worth it, though because:

“Death to everyone

Is gonna come

And it makes hosing

Much more fun.”

If you’re not familiar with the term ‘hosing’ the song seems to imply a couple of meanings – one related to getting drunk and the other to having sex. When Oldham is not singing about death, there is a good chance he’s singing about sex so let’s cover all the bases and go with drunken sex. Oldham’s main point is that sex is a lot better when you know you’re going to have a finite amount of it. You know, because…death.

All of “I See A Darkness’” celebrations are the darkest possible. Like the woman’s clothes in “Death to Everyone” the album’s predominant colour is black, as is the mood. Oldham wants us to get as still as possible, contemplate the foreboding terror of that stillness, and then emerge a little bit wiser. I’m not sure he needs the wisdom part so much as he wants to establish a mood and see what happens next.

In support of that mood, the album is recorded in very muted tones. Occasionally the piano will jangle a bit, or your ear will catch a clever chord change but the main impact is for the record to sound like it is being sung from a distance and through ten layers of cheesecloth. Black cheesecloth.

I expect if you were feeling morose and ready to curl up all alone with a glass of pinot noir and contemplate your sad fate this might be a strange kind of fun, but I found the incredible quietness made it hard to hear the music at all. I played this album at about 25% higher volume than I usually do and I still had a hard time. Given this album came out in 1999 I could’ve used just a little of all that excess loudness that pop and metal artists were throwing around the studio at the time.

I know all that quietness is supposed to draw me in, quiet my mind and let me see the beauty unfurl. However, for every time it succeeded, another time it would annoy me because I wanted to hear the song more clearly. Also, to create additional discord a lot of the songs have echoing vocals coming in just before or just after Oldham sings. I think it was designed to generate anxiety or heighten tension, but it just felt awkward and ill-timed.

As for the title track, it is a masterpiece of self-doubt, with a half-prayer at the end which calls for a better life ahead, but doesn’t promise it will happen. I prefer the Johnny Cash cover, but hearing Oldham’s frail high voice deliver it also had appeal.

Something tells me that “I See A Darkness” is a critical darling, but I think it overshadows other efforts from Bonnie Prince Billy that are just as thoughtful and much more listenable. If you are a huge fan of BPB, then you already know this record and are probably mad that I didn’t rave about how great it is. If you are not yet a huge fan, start with “Ease Down the Road” or “Palace Music” instead.

Best tracks: A Minor Place, Nomadic Revery (All Around), I See A Darkness

CD Odyssey Disc 942: Soundtrack

I meant to write this review last night but after a long and late night at the office I was knackered and opted instead for a couple TV shows and bed. Fortunately, I love this record so an extra day with it was no sacrifice.

Disc 942 is….True Detective Soundtrack

Artist: Various Artists, but a lot of Lera Lynn

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover? It looks like the promotional poster for Season Two of True Detective. From left to right we have: a crooked cop, a mobster trying to go legit, an angry cop and a cop with PTSD. It’s not a happy show.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila and I loved the show and the music it featured was always great. By happy accident while looking for someone to see in Nashville, I discovered that Lera Lynn was the mysterious singer in the background of the bar seasons in Season Two. From there it was a simple matter of looking for the soundtrack, which (happily) features music from both seasons.

How It Stacks Up:  I have a lot of soundtracks. I had originally finished reviewing them back at Disc 479, but had forgotten there were a bunch of albums that qualify as soundtracks that I file with the artist that did them. Since I’m now up the 31 soundtracks total, it is probably time to revisit the list. Take a deep breath, because it is long. You’ll note that “True Detective” lands impressively at number four.

1.  The Harder They Come: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 371)
2. Saturday Night Fever: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 392)
3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 225).
4. True Detective: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
5. The Matrix:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 291)
6. Magnolia:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 181)
7. Crooklyn:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 75)
8. Swingers:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 12)
9. A Kind of Magic: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 749)
10. Flash Gordon: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 659)
11. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 681)
12. Into the Wild:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 260)
13. Pulp Fiction:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 102)
14. Elizabethtown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 33)
15. Highway 61:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 230)
16. O Brother Where Art Thou:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 386)
17. Buffy The Vampire Slayer:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 216)
18. Reservoir Dogs:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 116)
19. Jackie Brown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 30)
20. Transamerica:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 402)
21. Les Miserables:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 111)
22. Big Night:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 215)
23. The Warriors:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 479)
24. James Bond:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 103)
25. One From the Heart: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 935)
26. About a Boy:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 252)
27. Chess:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 156)
28. Honeymoon in Vegas:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 17 and then sold)
29. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 284)
30. Moulin Rouge:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 151)
31. Natural Born Killers:  0 stars (reviewed at Disc 302)

Ratings: 4 stars

Sometimes a soundtrack perfectly captures the feel of the film or show it is meant to accompany. Other times, it is just a great collection of songs. The “True Detective” soundtrack manages to do both.

If you don’t know, “True Detective” is a disturbing crime serial, featuring damaged characters (mostly cops) trying to redeem themselves by stopping criminals even worse. While the first season is superior, both are worth your time and will leave you contemplating the baseness of humanity and the darker secrets of the universe; those secrets that reveal themselves only in fragments, lest they threaten your sanity when encountered whole. Yeah, it’s one of those kinds of shows.

A show like that needs music that sets just the right mood, and famed producer T. Bone Burnett delivers. This soundtrack is actually songs from the first two seasons, shuffled together imperfectly like a deck of cards at a poker table. The shuffling could have taken away from the narrative of the show, but instead the song order creates a new musical narrative that is both evocative of the show, and also casts a spell of its own.

The show manages to find two of the most brooding tracks for each season’s opening credits: the Handsome Family’s “Far From Any Road” (Season 1) and Leonard Cohen’s “Nevermind” (Season 2). The first song is some sort of drug-addled country, with a deep, mysterious vocal and echoes of mariachi bands gone wrong. I don’t know anything else by the Handsome Family, and frankly, this song makes me a bit nervous to delve any deeper. I probably will though.

Cohen’s “Nevermind” has a funky groove and Cohen is at his apocalyptic best as he speaks of all the people who get away with it, whether “it” is love or murder, or some terrible combination of the two.

For all the greatness of these two “title” tracks, the glue that holds this album together is alt-country chanteuse Lera Lynn.

“True Detective” is how I discovered Lera Lynn. Her mournful and lounge-tinged voice sounds like the voice of a ghost here, with T. Bone Burnett turning up the stark echo dial to 11 to maximize the effect of her vocal. Each of her five songs sends a shiver down your spine, leaving you cold and alone with fell thoughts of dark deeds done and the secrets that follow.

Lynn is an accomplished songwriter on her own, and here she teams up with T. Bone and Roseanne Cash. The result is a selection of restless mournful songs that wrap you in loss and regret. On “Lately”, when Lynn sings:

“Lately I'm not feeling like myself

When I look into the glass, I see someone else

I hardly recognize this face I wear

When I stare into her eyes, I see no one there

Lately I'm not feeling like myself”

You can feel the edge of madness creeping in – or is it just grief? The line blurs here as it does throughout the record. Later on “It Only Takes One Shot” she sings of a woman spurned, wrapped in imagery of guns and murder and fell conviction.

As if this record didn’t have enough creepy mood music, we are treated to two longstanding masters: Nick Cave (with Warren Ellis) and Bonnie Prince Billy. Cave and Ellis cover the Gatlin Brothers’ “All the Gold in California” and thoroughly twist it from country anthem to some kind of cultist chant. Bonnie Prince Billy’s “Intentional Injury” is a quiet internalization of the same order.

The record is so good that the Bob Dylan track (“Rocks and Gravel”) is good, but more of an afterthought.

In a way having all these artists contributing their best feels a bit like cheating, and that’s at least one reason I couldn’t give this record a perfect score. It came damn close, though.

Best tracks: All the Lera Lynn tracks (The Only Thing Worth Fighting For, Lately, My Least Favorite Life, A Church in Ruins and It Only Takes One Shot), Nevermind by Leonard Cohen, All the Gold in California by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Far From Any Road by The Handsome Family, Intentional Injury by Bonnie Prince Billy.

CD Odyssey Disc 927: Bonnie Prince Billy

I was back to work today after a week jam-packed with social engagements. I had a great time at all of them but tonight I’m looking forward to hunkering down with my wife and cat and watching the second half of the football game.

Disc 927 is….Ease Down the Road

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy

Year of Release: 2001

What’s up with the Cover? A quaint seaside road invites you to ease down it. Just know when to hit the brakes or your car is going to spill into the drink.

How I Came To Know It: After my friend Josh put me on to Bonnie Prince Billy a few years back I went on a mission to listen to all of his albums. “Ease Down the Road” was one of several that appealed enough for me to buy it.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four studio albums by Bonnie Prince Billy. Of the four, “Ease Down the Road” is easily the best.

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

“Ease Down the Road” is Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) at his confessional best. This record is filled with a quiet grace that steals into the cracks in your soul, getting down into those places where you keep your darkness. Then Oldham makes that darkness beautiful.

The album is well suited to its name, with melodies that are light and easy. Oldham’s high and airy vocals always feel like they are expressing some deeper truth that the rest of us fail to grasp. They are loaded with emotion and well suited to the stark and straightforward lyrics that fill the songs on the record.

The opening track, “May It Always Be,” is a gorgeous love song from a man who is fully comfortable with his own failings, to the point that he turns them into virtue:

“If you love me, and I’m weak

Then weaker you love me more

To re-enforce what’s also strong

And all the love we have in store.”

“In the morning we’ll wrestle

And ruin our stomachs with coffee

Won’t we be won’t we be won’t we be happy

And we will rise in anger love and ardor

Shining shining sparkling shining

Shimmering in love’s armour.”

The album is filled with explorations of love, and more than a little sex as well. Oldham sings freely about oral sex, bodily fluids and even more specific carnal acts I think it best you discover on your own. He does all of it in a way that is so natural and beautiful that you feel a little bad that you ever thought such things were dirty. He’s not a handsome man, but he is a sexy one, and he’s not afraid to talk about it.

Even the title track, which features marital infidelity in the front seat of a car, somehow gets lifted above the sordid nature of its subject. Oldham seems unconcerned with the moral complexity of it all, closing the song with:

“Eleanor was thrashing

I stopped the car we got a beer

And then eased down the road

A little guilt, and some guilt spilt

And added to our load.”

The production on the album is subtle and understated but perfect throughout. Guitar, banjo and piano all blend in wherever they’re needed, bowing out when they aren’t. Harmonies from the backup singers give some songs a hymn-like quality, with Oldham preaching the gospel of humanity, in all its frailty, uncertainty and subtle strength.

The music is a match for the great lyrics. Even songs that aren’t my favourites like “The Lion Lair” have progressions that round on themselves lazily, never resolving when you think they will. Instead they leave you in suspension as they circle for an extra bar or two before landing effortlessly, just where they need to be.

My favourite track is “A King At Night.” Oldham completely loses himself in the character of someone thoroughly entitled, but completely at ease with themselves. The song’s melody dances with itself even as the character – who is more than slightly insane – revels in the troubled kingdom of his own mind.

“Ease Down the Road” is one of those albums that reveals a little more of itself every time I listen to it. In a few years it will probably grow to become a five star album as I dig deeper into its mysteries.

Best tracks: May It Always Be, Careless Love, A King at Night, At Break of Day, Ease Down the Road, Grand Dark Feeling of Emptiness, Rich Wife Full of Happiness

CD Odyssey Disc 903: Bonnie Prince Billy

I recently sold my car, which was where I would tend to listen to my new music when I’m not doing this CD Odyssey thing. As a result I have one less way to listen to new music, and my new purchases are starting to overflow (I think there are around 70 right now I haven’t properly grokked in their fullness).

Fortunately, the CD Odyssey has a rule that allows me to insert a new (to me) album into the mix if I choose to. It has been years since I’ve done it, but I’m going to try it out again by periodically taking a new album (still rolled randomly) from the albums I’ve recently purchased and inserting it into the mix. This next review is one of those.

Disc 903 is….Superwolf

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy, with Matt Sweeney

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover? A bloody hand, raised from the water. Shark attack? Superwolf? Superwolf Sharknado? The B-movie options are almost endless.

How I Came To Know It: Recently when I decide I like an artist sufficiently, I dig through their back catalogue and listen to everything they’ve ever done that I can find on Youtube. Then I buy what I like. I recently did this with Bonnie Prince Billy and “Superwolf” made the cut.

How It Stacks Up:  I have one compilation album by Bonnie Prince Billy and four studio albums. Of the four studio albums, I must reluctantly put “Superwolf” last.

Ratings: 3 stars

“Superwolf” is a headphones-only album that loses a lot of its oomph when played in the open air. It is also an atmospheric record, with a lot of ambient sound filling in all the gaps of the production. Sometimes I wish it were a little sparser, or would at least get where it is going with more sense of direction.

Bonnie Prince Billy is a natural poet, but it is not always clear what he’s getting at. He carefully chooses words to evoke a mood that mixes restlessness, unease, sexual desire and romanticism. It isn’t an easy cocktail to adjust to, but usually it is worth the effort.

The opening track, “My Home Is The Sea” starts the record off on the right foot, with the stark opening of:

“I have often said

That I would like to be dead

In a shark’s mouth”

It then morphs into a surprisingly romantic love song. Bonnie Prince Billy is nae very bonnie, and he’s obviously learned how to use music to woo the ladies. Even I felt wooed by many of “Superwolf’s” tracks.

“Beast for Thee” and “What Are You?” follow the opening track with more romance and a fairly large helping of sexual innuendo as well, and I found myself slipping into a drifting reverie, under the Bonnie Prince’s high tenor voice, frail and insistent.

Then “Goat and Ram” breaks the spell, alternating a lukewarm bath of directionless reverb guitar with the clash of instruments that sound too loud no matter how much you turn down the volume. The treatment stands out like a sore thumb, and makes the song disruptive and (dare I say it) a little annoying.

Worse still is “Blood Embrace.” It is almost eight minutes long, starting out with a pretty nifty and haunting melody on the guitar that unfortunately never develops into something more. For the first two minutes you are excited to see where the song will go, and for the last six you just want it to end.

While “Blood Embrace” is the worst offender, many of the other songs have a similar problem. They start out promising but they have a meandering feeling that makes me want them to just do a little more.

The overall effect is similar. Even though the record is a tastefully restrained 11 songs and 43 minutes long it seems to drag and take too long to say what it has to say. Despite this, I can’t deny Bonnie Prince Billy’s innovative approach to music, and it lifts the album from merely average to good.

The record ends on a high point, with the depressing but beautiful “I Gave You”

“I gave you a child, and you didn’t want it

That’s the most that I have to give

I gave you a house and you didn’t haunt it

Now where am I supposed to live?”

All the unsettled romanticism expressed earlier on the record comes home to roost on “I Gave You,” which expresses the horror of a love that won’t leave, even though everything it now touches is polluted and wrong.

On a record that I was considering giving away, it is just enough to land the needle on the “keep” side of the dial, at least for now. However, “Superwolf” is still not a record I would use to introduce someone to Bonnie Prince Billy.

Best tracks:  My Home Is The Sea, What Are You?, Only Someone Running, Death in the Sea, I Gave You

CD Odyssey Disc 887: Bonnie Prince Billy

This next album was delayed because it was one of those records that had to seep slowly into my bones over repeat listens. Like a well-marinated steak, it was worth the wait.

Disc 887 is….Greatest Palace Music

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy

Year of Release: 2004 but featuring songs originally recorded 1993-1997

What’s up with the Cover? And then the Crayon Giant barfed on the mountain, and there were many deaths. I’m not saying I hate this cover, but the best part is the font.

How I Came To Know It: A few years back my friend Josh introduced me to the song “West Palm Beach” while teaching me guitar. I never got very good at playing that song, but I liked it, and I also knew about the Johnny Cash cover of Bonnie Prince Billy’s “I See A Darkness” so I sought out more of his stuff.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Bonnie Prince Billy albums including this one. I’m not sure I should stack this one up, though. On the one hand it is all music from earlier albums in his career, and so represents a “best of” (which don’t get ranked). On the other hand, the recordings are quite different from the original, and so you could argue it is an original record. However, Gordon Lightfoot re-recorded songs for his two “Gord’s Gold” albums and I didn’t rank them, so I’m going to stick with that decision. No stacking for a compilation album, even if you reimagine the songs.

Ratings: “Best Of” albums don’t get a rating, but I did like this record a lot.

When I first delved into the early music of Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) it was under his other pseudonym of Palace Brothers. At the time I was disappointed. My previously limited exposure to Billy was positive (see above) but despite this, the work of the Palace Brothers fell flat. I could tell the songs were objectively good, but they didn't inspire me. I dabbled briefly before moving on to his later work, nary a purchase made.

Fortunately what I moved on to was his rerecorded versions of some of those early songs on “Greatest Palace Music.” All those songs that went in one ear and out the other became fascinating and layered works of beauty with their new treatment and production. Presentation matters.

In this case that presentation is a folksy country/folk crossover, heavy on piano, moderate on the guitar and flourishes of horn where they are called for and (for the most part) omitted when they’re not.

Early on the album feels very much like a greatest hits record, with the first five tracks the best five on the album.

The opening track, “New Partner” is a brave choice for an opening, with its slow tempo, and regret-filled piano. Oldham’s chorus calls to his new partner, but the song is about a lost love, not the new one. The song’s final stanza captures the awkwardness of it all with a poetic grace that permeates the entire album:

“Now the sun's fading faster, we're ready to go

There's a skirt in the bedroom that's pleasantly low

And the loons on the moor, the fish in the flow

And my friends, my friends still will whisper hello

We all know what we know, it's a hard swath to mow

When you think like a hermit you forget what you know”

Oldham’s high and deeply evocative voice is perfectly matched to this particular brand of cerebral heartache. He is the equal of other creepy but delightfully self-examined poets like Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave.

The second song, “Ohio River Boat Song” is what I would’ve gone with to open the record; a traditional country swing in it that could be a hit in Nashville if it weren’t so damned thoughtful. Too easy a choice for the Bonnie Prince, I suppose.

The best song on the record is “Gulf Shores” which has such a sublime piano piece holding it up. Oldham is the master of taking a fairly straightforward chord progression and throwing in odd notes that seem momentarily out of place, but then artfully resolve. Jazz wishes it could be this creative and yet still enjoyable to listen to. Lyrically, I can’t think of a song that evokes deeper emotion and backstory which is ostensibly about just sitting on the beach.

On “You Will Miss Me When I Burn” Oldham sings the sad refrain “when you have no one/no one can hurt you” as the piano matches his resigned and beautifully lonely vocal delivery. “The Brute Choir” rounds out the fab five start, returning to powerful Cohen-esque moment with piano that soars triumphantly even as Oldham’s sweet and high vocals beg for an end to it all.

Unfortunately, the album is a tad long at 58 minutes, and the latter two-thirds of the record don’t hold up the same energy as its start. Maybe I’m just emotionally exhausted by the time I’m 20 minutes in, but I think it is hard to match those first few songs.

Nothing is terrible, but there were disappointments. “I Send My Love to You” features a silly sound effect of a duck quacking, and “No More Workhorse Blues” gets emotionally powerful, but it waits too long to do so.

“Agnes, Queen of Sorrows” is a strong duet with Marty Slayton about a couple with a relationship on the rocks. It features the great refrain of “If you wait another day/I will wait another day.” Doesn’t sound like much, but it is the straw these two hold onto. In the hands of master songwriter Oldham that straw becomes a whole world.

The album ends with “I Am A Cinematographer” which feels a bit hokey, and isn’t helped by five minutes of dead air tagged onto the end of the record. Please stop doing this people. It might feel like artistic expression to you but it amounts to little more than a prank on your listeners.

Like most Bonnie Prince Billy records, “Greatest Palace Music” takes time and patience to fully understand, but the time spent will be worth it in the end. Few artists have Will Oldham’s talent for painting a scene with the art of the word, and then also knowing just what tune to bring that imagery to life.

Best tracks:  New Partner, Ohio River Boat Song, Gulf Shores, You Will Miss Me When I Burn, The Brute Choir, Agnes Queen of Sorrows, West Palm Beach