First find on the dock: This has been waiting in the wings for some time, in fact, it’s a little bit of a redo, as it’s a title I championed a few years ago in the Music We Like book. I‘ll take this opportunity to expand my earlier opinion.

Tracker - Ames  (Film Guerrero)

Tracker is, basically, a guy from Portland, OR named John Askew (not to be confused with the DJ of the same name) and whoever he collects around him when he’s ready to record and tour. This was the first album from 1999 and is almost completely played by Askew with some help from friends Adam Selzer (Norfolk & Western) and Erik Herzog (Buellton). I bought it solely on the strength of the album art and the weakness of the price tag. Thus, I was doubly rewarded.

In a number of ways there are similarities to the dynamics of Jason Molina’s Songs:Ohia/Magnolia Electric Company projects. Both are the aggregates of a single man’s songwriting and organizational vision. Both have an undeniably roots Americana base, but with a lot of layering, whether it’s voices, samples of classical music or electronic textures hazing around simple plucked banjo lines. Like Molina, Askew writes extremely strong melodies, and couples them with thoughtful and often mystifying lyrics.

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The new Bonnie Prince Billy album is quite pleasing.  It's called Lie Down In the Light and it has the quality elements we expect from a BPB record-- the loose harmonies, addicting melodies and bawdy lyrics, and yet it also has new elements that make it unlike past BPB albums. 

Admirably, BPB (aka Will Oldham) is always experimenting and each of his releases has distinguishing characteristics.  This record has more piano than I remember in any albums past.  It also has more noticeable Southern influences than he's included in a while-- the song "I'll Be Glad" is a straight up gospel-y number, but kinda country-ish too, seeing as it is about the strength of God, and there's backup singers and pedal steel guitar all over it.  Then there's also the random but welcome addition of a jazzy clarinet on "For Every Field There's A Mole,"  and it all sounds seamless!

Lyrically the record is sort of simplistic, which caught me off guard at first, but upon repeated listening, I get it.  Oldham recently lost his father, and in my opinion this is reflected in the lyrical simplicity, which often pertains to showing your friends and family love ("Keep your loved ones near/cause others need you right here by/just as you need me" from "Other's Gain."), and enjoying the easy pleasures of life in the now, such as dancing around the kitchen all night in the track "Easy Does It." 


One of the very best aspects of this latest album is the vocals by Ashley Webber, who adds a depth and emotionality to her duets with Will that was never matched by his most recent previous duet partner, Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables.  Webber is apparently the twin sister of Black Mountain's Amber Webber, who happens to be one of my favorite vocalists out there right now.  I still am not sure if I actually believe Amber has a twin...I wouldn't be surprised if it was Amber herself on these tracks!  But who knows.  Either way, the voice is fantastic and brings the songs to greater heights than they would reach without her.  The tracks she is featured on are the best on the record.

I am beyond excited to report that in this interview with Billboard, guitarist and of-late Neil Diamond session player Matt Sweeney confirms that there will be another Superwolf record! 

Superwolf is Matt's project with Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Billy, and their first record is one of my favorites in the entire epic Oldham cannon (that's saying something!).

That self-titled record is such a dramatic and emotional piece of art--  I can't wait to see what they come up with next.  Sweeney's twisty, turn-y, melodic electric guitar is the perfect counterpoint to Oldham's rough and ready vocals.  Working with Sweeney on that record seemed to revitalize Oldham after a few years' worth of softer, more acoustic records.  (And thank goodness!)

Check out this clip of Superwolf's "Beast For Thee" performed live.  I love when Will busts out the overalls on tour (the whole entire band wears the exact same bulky khaki overalls...), then sings sad, delicate songs and contorts all around:



Anyone else wanna swoon with me, remembering when Oldham and Sweeney stopped by Amoeba SF and played the Superwolf album straight through a couple of years back?  Ah, that was a great day!

Most of this week I have been listening to the new EP Ask Forgiveness by Bonnie Prince Billy, just repeating it over and over.  It features 7 covers and one new original.


The best tracks are the Danzig cover "Am I Demon", and the Phil Ochs cover "My Life".  Yeah, there's an R. Kelly cover on there too, of "The World's Greatest", and it's funny and semi ironic and all, but I like other stuff on the cd much better. 

Bonnie Prince Billy is always both covering and writing songs about identity and struggling with that whole thing! Previous tracks "Little Boy Blue" and "Wolf Among Wolves" both are about those kind of issues.  Anyway, the Danzig track is slow and pretty and asks "Am I Demon?/I need to know".  We all get the somewhat resigned answer by the end of the song. I love when BPB ends the phrases by singing waaay up high.  It's lovely.  It's fun to hear a song about demons that's all folky and acoustic and not screamed! 

I'm a fan of Phil Ochs (See the name of my blog!), and it's great to hear someone like BPB covering him since he was such a talent and so brilliant and cutting.  His lyrics are better than about 90% of everyone else's, give or take a few percentage points, of course.  Anyway, "My Life" is a beautiful choice, and I guess it's yet another song about identity, about what life means and changes and paranoia and growing up.  I guess it covers a lot of ground!  It's really a poem:

Someone's been very kind to me today:  I received a package in the mail chock full of Bonnie Prince Billy bootlegs and singles!  Very exciting day, and how perfect is it that it's drizzling and grey out?  It's ideal for BPB listening, at least to me for whatever reason.

That's not to say his music is depressing though.  It can be dark, but for the most part for me it's actually uplifting and really almost unbeatable.  It's got a loose feel to it, a risky feeling.  Feels like everything's on the brink of falling apart, but it never does.  Fantastic.

In case you are unaware, Bonnie Prince Billy goes under many names, so his albums can be difficult to find and collect.  Some of these names/projects include: Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, Bonnie Billy, and Will Oldham (his real name).  He also collaborates often with others, like Amalgamated Sons of Rest, Matt Sweeney (that's Matt in the pics on the left and below), David Pajo and, more recently, Tortoise.  Oh yeah and he just contributed vocals to a record by Scout Niblett as well!  You can see how it's tough to keep up with the guy.  Oh yeah, and some of his best songs can be found on out of print 45s.

These bootlegs I just got are from the I See A Darkness and Ease Down The Road period.  I LOVE I See A Darkness, and Ease Down the Road is a solid record for him.  He's put out so many, you see!  His output can be fairly staggering to the uninitiated.  I'll try to break down a few of my favorites at the end of the post.