Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Is It The Sea? CD review
BBC-sanctioned live album from US Alt-Folk favourite
Jan 4, 2009
Hailing from the creatively-fertile Louisville, Kentucky, Oldham's sparse, brooding music has found him collaborating with everyone from critically-acclaimed Kentucky neighbours Slint through to the legendary Johnny Cash over the years.
His methods are often unusual to say the least. Respected US underground producer Steve Albini attests to this, when he says: “He (Oldham) doesn't rehearse...he chooses the people he's going to play with shortly before the session begins. So everyone's playing by the seat of their pants.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_'Prince'_Billy)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's acclaimed Irish and Scottish shows
This looseness and sense of adventure emanates from Oldham's best work, not least on the 2008 live album 'Is It The Sea?' (released through www.dominorecordco.com) where he shares Scottish and Irish concert stages with a band comprising members of Edinburgh nu-folkers Harem Scarem and Glaswegian drummer Alex Neilson. The BBC recording quality is second-to-none, but the high fidelity only serves to accentuate the otherworldliness inherent in Oldham's muse.
As fans have come to expect from resolutely bass-less music built around acoustic guitars, fiddle, banjo, flute and brushed drums, the songs are sparse, Celtic-tinged and windswept.
The vocal harmonies between Oldham, Sarah McFadyen and Nuala Kennedy often carry the melody and express a warmth that Oldham's stark lyrics (e.g: “when the numbers get so high/ of the dead flying through the sky” from Love Comes To Me) suggest would be absent.
From The Velvet Underground to Celtic murder ballads
The set itself is a delight, coming on like an alternative 'greatest hits' affair, with hymnal early classics like Minor Place and Arise Therefore rubbing shoulders with the dirge-like melancholy of Wolf Among Wolves and a ghostly Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise.
Here, the ending prompts several seconds of hushed silence before the audience finally erupt and break the spell. Arguably even better are the three 8-minute epics Cursed Sleep, My Home Is The Sea and the traditional Molly Bawn: a Celtic murder ballad of some repute where the band revel in the rich, strange music and work up a set piece with an intensity more akin to The Velvet Underground than anything identifiable under the 'Folk' banner.
The end results are intoxicating and a timely reminder that – in his various guises – Will Oldham has amassed one of the most singular and distinctive canons of work existing beneath the commercial radar. With a new album entitled Beware due out in March 2009, it looks as though this Prince's crown is unlikely to slip any time in the near future.
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