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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: The Purple Bird review – Will Oldham goes country, but darkly
Recorded in Nashville, the American outlier’s latest is concerned with the state of the nation and more, though there’s mischief in there too
Although Bonnie “Prince” Billy (AKA Will Oldham) has made all sorts of records, he remains most closely associated with his earliest parched, folk-adjacent outings that delved obliquely into the bleaker aspects of human nature. It’s a country record, with all the harmonies, musicianship and hangdog relationship blues (Tonight With the Dogs I’m Sleeping) that implies. Although death features, and the water is not what it was ( Downstream), Oldham often advises the listener to seize the day and go skinny dipping in the creek; to build community.
Or read this on The Guardian
