Sings Greatest Palace Music (CD)


Bonnie "Prince" Billy

CD
Currently Unavailable
$17.98
SHIPS FREE in U.S.

Amoeba Review

John Schacht 05/15/2010

Whatever your take on an artist re-doing his own material, one thing this collection confirms: Will Oldham disappeared completely into Bonnie Prince Billy with this release, and in the process may have made some sort of weird post-modern statement – whether by design or accident, it doesn’t really matter. The artist-formerly-known-as-Palace/Palace Brothers/Palace Music would in the future still have minimalist pictures left to paint, but this 2004 re-recording of old Palace-related material was an adventure in decidedly hi-fi twang. Devotion to Palace's warbling lo-fi and Oldham's Appalachian Hillbilly persona will quickly determine the listener’s enjoyment of this sonic do-over. Luddites will undoubtedly snip at BPB's shiny sound and the recruitment of some of Nashville's most expensive hired guns -- drummer Eddie Bayers, Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano) and Stuart Duncan (fiddle) -- to gussy up these Palace songs, which they surely did. But Oldham has recorded some of the most honest, affecting and adult (either "adult" definition will often do) songs in recent years, be he Palace or "Prince,” and if you’d never heard the originals it seems unlikely these new versions would fail to move you because of their sheen. "You Will Miss Me When I Burn," "More Brother Rides," "Gulf Shores," and "Ohio River Boat Song" could probably be played on tuba and triangle and still transcend. One or two tunes don't make the transition well, like "I Am a Cinematographer" and "I Send My Love to You," both of which don’t benefit from new, overly saccharine takes. But most of these songs were engagingly authentic when they crawled from the hills, muddy river crossings and mining camps of Oldham's imagination; they still are here, even with a nice new gloss of Bonnie Prince on them.



Track Listing



Disc 1 Titles
Artist
Length
1.
New Partner
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 04:31
2.
Ohio River Boat Song
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 02:54
3.
Gulf Shores
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 03:54
4.
You Will Miss Me When I Burn
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 04:08
5.
The Brute Choir
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 03:41
6.
I Send My Love to You
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 02:28
7.
More Brother Rides
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 03:04
8.
Agnes, Queen of Sorrow
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 03:13
9.
Viva Ultra
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 03:56
10.
Pushkin
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 04:01
11.
Horses
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 03:45
12.
Riding
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 03:42
13.
West Palm Beach
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 04:03
14.
No More Workhorse Blues
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 02:56
15.
I Am a Cinematographer
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 07:44
16.
Untitled
Bonnie "Prince" Billy 00:04

CD
Currently Unavailable
$17.98
SHIPS FREE in U.S.
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