Tag Archives: bonnie prince billy

The Marquis de Tren and Bonny Billy, Solemns EP, 2013

Posted on April 19, 2013 by

This would be the second Marquis/Bonny collaboration between Will Oldham and Mick Turner (of the Dirty Three), the first being the Get On Jolly EP released in 2000. There’s a neat yellow flyer that comes with the record giving a … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Sixty Minute Man/Sixty-one 10”, 2013

Posted on April 5, 2013 by

Ah, I’d planned to work through Oldham’s discography in chronological order but I think a little timeliness in getting copy out would be good, especially for these hard-to-obtain items that the Bonnie-fan exploitation machine keeps churning out every few months. … Continue reading →

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Cheyenne Mize and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Among The Gold, 2009

Posted on April 5, 2013 by

This is an interesting project. These songs are old, like very old, dating back as far as 1873. The most ‘recent’ one is from 1915. There’s a neat narrative arc running through these songs with the first five mentioning “dreaming” … Continue reading →

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Bonny Billy & The Picket Line, Funtown Comedown, 2009

Posted on April 4, 2013 by

This is the third official Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy live album to be released on vinyl, fourth if you include the CD-only Wilding In The West from 2008. I found Summer In The Southeast virtually unlistenable, Is It The Sea? was … Continue reading →

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Soulsavers, Sunrise/You Will Miss Me When I Burn 7”, 2009

Posted on April 1, 2013 by

Strictly speaking this is not a Will Oldham release—it’s produced by a British outfit known as Soulsavers, an “electronic-rock-gospel duo” according to Discogs. Oldham guest-sings on the A-side and Mark Lanegan on the B-side, “You Will Miss Me When I … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Stay 7″, 2009

Posted on April 1, 2013 by

Oldham had already collaborated with Susanna Wallumrod earlier in 2009 on their 7” single “Forever And Ever,” doing two cover songs. On this cast-off, Oldham covers two Susanna songs from her album Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos. We’ve got several musicians … Continue reading →

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Young Widows / Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Poor Shelter split 7″, 2009

Posted on April 1, 2013 by

This was released by Temporary Residence in 2009 as the first in a series of four ‘split’ seven inch singles all featuring Young Widows on the A-side. Who they? A noise trio from Louisville, home also to the subject of … Continue reading →

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Susanna and Bonny Billy Sing, Forever And Ever 7″, 2009

Posted on April 1, 2013 by

Susanna is none other than Susanna Wallumrod, a Norwegian singer born in 1979. I’d never heard of her until I came across this record, and I haven’t found any information on how it came about. There’s no label, and it … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Chijimi 10”, 2009

Posted on April 1, 2013 by

It’s in Will Oldham On Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy that Oldham says this Chijimi record is one of his favourites because of the simplicity of the recording process. Just himself, Emmett Kelly and Cheyenne Mize in a room in his house. … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy with Harem Scarem and Alex Neilson, Is It The Sea? 2008

Posted on March 31, 2013 by

This is a double live album from a concert in Edinburgh recorded by the BBC and released on heavy duty vinyl. The sound quality is of a very high standard, the drums for example, can be heard in the finest … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Lie Down In The Light, 2008

Posted on March 28, 2013 by

At first Lie Down In The Light seemed less thematically linked across the course of its eleven songs than most Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy albums. I had thought it more focused on individual songs rather than crafting a specific feel or … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Ask Forgiveness, 2007

Posted on January 11, 2013 by

I’d had this on my ipod for a couple of years before I got round to playing my vinyl copy, and it was really only during a hiking trip through Switzerland in 2011 that I got fully absorbed in Ask … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Notes For Future Lovers 7″, 2008

Posted on January 7, 2013 by

This is a rather obscure release limited to 500 copies and released on translucent blue vinyl. The lyrics are taken from poems by John Harmon, a jazz musician from Wisconsin, who plays keyboards. He seems to have been involved in … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Strange Form Of Life 12″, 2007

Posted on January 6, 2013 by

This is the fourth single to be released from The Letting Go album. Okay, I’ve already written about this song twice—once in my album review and once for the live version on the B-side to the “Bonny 2007” tour release … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Bonny 2007 – John the Baptist 7″, 2007

Posted on January 6, 2013 by

This 7” contains two tracks recorded live in October 2007 at a concert in California. The A-side is a melding of two separate “John The Baptist” songs, one written by E.C. Ball (1913-1978) an American singer-songwriter, who played country gospel … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, The Letting Go, 2006

Posted on January 6, 2013 by

I have a sorry history with this album. I bought it in the year of release and despite being aware of all the great reviews, I never seemed to understand what people were raving about. I wasn’t really listening, and … Continue reading →

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Tortoise and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, The Brave And The Bold, 2006

Posted on December 11, 2012 by

So the first album post-Superwolf that I buy, after deciding Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy was the best thing since blue cheese, was this hard-to-love album of covers performed with Chicago ‘post-rock’ outfit Tortoise, a band whose albums I own none of. … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Lay & Love 12”, 2007

Posted on November 29, 2012 by

Here we have the third single in support of The Letting Go. Seems kind of odd that Oldham rarely releases promo singles and then suddenly four for one album. But they come with a plethora of B-sides so it kinda … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Cold & Wet 12″, 2006

Posted on November 29, 2012 by

This is the second single from The Letting Go album. Here we’ve got one album track plus two live songs with what seems to be the same band Oldham toured with for the Summer In The Southeast LP. The lead … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Cursed Sleep 12″, 2006

Posted on November 29, 2012 by

This is the first single released in advance of The Letting Go, one of Oldham’s most consistently melodic albums, although again, he has a collaborator, Dawn McCarthy, and they work some absolute magic together. The songs on this EP are … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Summer In The Southeast, 2005

Posted on July 12, 2012 by

For me, this is the least likable of Oldham’s three live albums of the noughties. In fact, it’s the least likable Oldham album full stop. The mix isn’t great, although it’s a good opportunity to hear the full electric Bonnie … Continue reading →

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Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Superwolf, 2005

Posted on July 12, 2012 by

I walked into Kichijoji’s Disc Union in 2005, the week Superwolf was released, and without knowing anything about it, but not quite being the Bonnie fan I was about to become, bought it on a whim. I went home and … Continue reading →

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Songs For The Young At Heart, Puff The Magic Dragon 7″, 2005

Posted on July 6, 2012 by

In 2005 Stuart Staples and David Boulter decided to get together and produce an album of updated versions of children’s songs. Boulter had just had a son and wanted to play him classic kids’ music which he felt was on … Continue reading →

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Bonny/Sweeney, I Gave You b/w Four Screams 7″, 2005

Posted on July 6, 2012 by

This is the only single released to promote the brilliant Superwolf album. Three facts which suggest that it wasn’t much of a promotional move, however: (1) “I Gave You” is a great song but it’s not the album’s best; (2) … Continue reading →

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Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Sings Greatest Palace Music, 2004

Posted on July 5, 2012 by

According to Oldham, after working with Marty Slayton on Master And Everyone and realizing how it easy it was to work with professional studio musicians, he decided he’d head down to Nashville and make this album, which doesn’t sound like … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, No More Workhorse Blues b/w The Color Of My Dreams 7″, 2004

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

Here we have the second single in support of Sings Greatest Palace Music. I could add a note here about how much I’ve been enjoying these new versions since I got to know all of the songs through the Palace … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow b/w Blokbuster 7″, 2004

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

This was the first single in support of Sings Greatest Palace Music, the album Oldham recorded using Nashville session musicians to revive his old Palace material. I remember there was a lot of hand wringing in the music press over … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Master And Everyone, 2003

Posted on June 26, 2012 by

This was the first Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album I purchased, after enjoying a copy of Ease Down The Road that a friend made for me in 2002. I must have bought it in Japan because my CD copy came with … Continue reading →

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Will Oldham, We All, Us Three, Will Ride b/w Barcelona 7″, 2002

Posted on June 23, 2012 by

This isn’t the first time he’s ‘covered himself’ but this is about where Oldham must have started thinking about getting his Palace music heard again, having achieved success as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. This would culminate with a whole album of … Continue reading →

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Bonny Billy / Rainywood, Brother Warrior b/w Cornflower Blue, split 7”, 2002

Posted on June 21, 2012 by

These two songs are both Kate Wolf covers. Who’s Kate Wolf? You might well ask unless you’re well versed in American country/folk/singer-songwriters of the 70s and 80s, which I’m obviously not, because I’d never heard of her until five minutes … Continue reading →

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Will Oldham and Erik Wesselo, Forest Time, Book & 10″, 2002

Posted on June 21, 2012 by

This is a single song 10” released in the Netherlands; tis an art collaboration with Eric Wesselo, a photographer who provides the 12 photos that appear in the booklet (samples below). Apparently 5000 copies were produced worldwide so it’s not … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Ease Down The Road, 2001

Posted on June 21, 2012 by

Ease Down The Road, while perfectly enjoyable, has always been my least favourite Will Oldham album, while also being my first. A friend made me a copy on MD back in 2002. Listening to it closely in preparation for this … Continue reading →

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The Marquis de Tren and Bonny Billy, Get On Jolly EP, 2000

Posted on June 18, 2012 by

I’ve just read two reviews of this EP on the internet – the only two I could find after a very quick search – and neither reviewer seemed to realize that the lyrics to Get On Jolly are taken from a … Continue reading →

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Bonnie “Blue” Billy, Little Boy Blue I & II b/w Blue Boy 7″, 2000

Posted on June 13, 2012 by

These three songs are all covers written some time in the past seventy years by American songwriters, two of whom were born in 1920 Tennessee. I guess Oldham chose them because the song titles are all nearly the same. In … Continue reading →

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Will Oldham, Guarapero: Lost Blues 2, 2000

Posted on June 12, 2012 by

‘Guarapero’ is a colloquial term for “a person who drinks a lot or knows how to drink,” but a ‘guarapero’ can also mean one who makes ‘guarapo’ – an iced drink popular in South America. Guarapero picks up not only … Continue reading →

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Will Oldham, Ode Music, 2000

Posted on June 11, 2012 by

Ode Music is the soundtrack to a film called Ode by Kelly Reichardt released in 1999. It’s about two southern kids who meet at a bridge in order to consummate their forbidden love. At some point, the boy jumps off … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Let’s Start A Family (Blacks) b/w A Whorehouse Is Any House 7″, 1999

Posted on June 10, 2012 by

This single was released as part of a Subpop promotion called the Subpop Singles Club. It’s great that the Prince was still releasing singles that weren’t related to promoting albums. That wouldn’t eventuate in force until Greatest Palace, Superwolf and … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, I See A Darkness, 1999

Posted on June 10, 2012 by

When any artist engages with death as his or her subject matter in an instinctual and sensitive manner (I’m not talking death metal or goth rock here), it generally gets lauded as an artistic triumph. This is perhaps one of … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, One With The Birds b/w Southside Of The World 7″, 1998

Posted on June 8, 2012 by

Both tracks here embrace a much classier recording dynamic than the Palace material, and this is where we’re really starting to see the birth of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, an artist who says he finally realized that making music did not … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Performs Songs Of Kevin Loyne 7”, 1998

Posted on June 8, 2012 by

The first thing to note here is that “Loyne” is a typo. It’s meant to be “Coyne.” The record was produced and released in Portugal with three different covers. If we look closely at some of the artists Oldham has … Continue reading →

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Black Dissimulation b/w No Such As What I Want 7”, 1998

Posted on June 8, 2012 by

Around 1996/7, Will Oldham got together with members of the Dirty Three and several other musicians to record an album of new material, which he ultimately ditched. He says that he found it unsatisfying owing to the disjointed and unfocused … Continue reading →

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Palace Contribution / Zeni Geva, Big Balls b/w Let There Be Rock split 7”, 1997

Posted on June 6, 2012 by

In collaboration with a German label called Gasoline Boost, the Chicago record label Skin Graft released a run of AC/DC 7” tribute records in the late 90s. This one is referred to as “Sides 5 and 6” because it was … Continue reading →

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Will Oldham, Patience b/w Take However Long You Want 7″, 1997

Posted on June 6, 2012 by

This 7” signals yet another aesthetic change from the Palace sound, which itself may be bedrocked in the lo-fi country death ballad, but above which, variations on a theme and inconsistency have kept things interesting. Days In The Wake was … Continue reading →

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Palace Live, For The Mekons, Et Al. b/w Stable Will 7″, 1996

Posted on June 6, 2012 by

Here we have a live 7” single. Oldham says he first discovered the Mekons while tripping on LSD in New York, played an album of theirs all night long and became a fan for life. He recorded this song which … Continue reading →

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Palace Music, Little Blue Eyes b/w The Spider’s Dude Is Often There 7″, 1996

Posted on June 5, 2012 by

In 1993 Oldham toured Europe with several other musicians as Palace. They recorded four songs at a Peel session. Two of those were released three years later on this 7” single. Oldham must have written a lot in the early … Continue reading →

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Palace, Every Mother’s Son b/w No More Rides 7″, 1996

Posted on June 2, 2012 by

The A-side is a cover of a Lynyrd Skynyrd song, a band I’ve never listened to. Just took a listen online now to their version of this song, and thought they sounded like early Grateful Dead, a kind of laidback … Continue reading →

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Palace, Gezundheit b/w Let The Wires Ring 7″, 1995

Posted on June 1, 2012 by

After the relatively lush production quality of the last three singles, this 7” drags the aesthetic right back down into lo-fi drear territory. The first ten seconds of “Gezundheit” even sounds like it was recorded on damaged tape, whereas “Let … Continue reading →

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Palace Songs, The Mountain b/w (End Of) Travelling 7″, 1995

Posted on June 1, 2012 by

This is the first Palace single that seems to actually exist for the purpose of promoting an album. “The Mountain” comes from Viva Last Blues, (titled “The Mountain Low”) probably the best of the Palace albums in terms of gold … Continue reading →

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Palace, West Palm Beach b/w Gulf Shores 7″, 1994

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

This was produced by Kramer, a name I associate with those Galaxie 500 records. Oldham has said that he sees 7” singles as a way of experimenting with a sound or style, so that if it ultimately fails, at least … Continue reading →

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Palace Songs, O How I Enjoy The Light b/w Marriage 7″, 1994

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

The first thing you notice about this single is the warmer sound, richer fidelity and sheer complexity of the musicianship, something you don’t hear too often on the early Palace material. The next thing you notice is that the song … Continue reading →

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