Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy– Ask Forgiveness
(Drag City)

I have been writing a long and thoroughly confusing piece on Will Oldham, the man also known as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, for the better part of a year with a view to eventually posting it here. To my joy and consternation, Oldham has characteristically slipped out a record just before the end of the year. It’s always nice to hear from your favourite living recording artist but it’s also a mild disappointment to find out that it’s his third (or is it second?) covers album in as many years. Last year’s confusing and bipolar collaboration with Chicago instrumentalist titans Tortoise The Brave and the Bold was a mixed bag of lush atmospheric renditions of all manner of weird and wonderful artists with more than it’s fair share of interesting failures. The year was considerably brightened by the release of The Letting Go, which was easily one of the finest albums of Oldham’s career. While that record was essentially an album of mesmerising, picturesque duets Dawn McCarthy of Fawn Fables, on this album he is accompanied by Meg Baird and Greg Weeks of Philadelphia based folk outfit Espers, a far more suitable pair of accompanists for Oldham’s Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy persona.

Fair warning - If you are unfamiliar with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, this is not the record to introduce you to his universe. If on the other hand you are a die-hard Oldham fan, this record is an excellent stop-over until the man is ready to bring us a worthy successor to The Letting Go. While seven of these eight songs are covers, they have been re-worked to the extent that they could easily be Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy originals. This is an achievement considering the diverse range of artists tackled within. Starting with a rendition of ‘I Came Here to Hear the Music’ by original Nashville outlaw Mickey Newbury, the Espers duo are an excellent foil throughout. Baird provides an excellent counterpoint melody by lagging just wide of Oldham’s voice, as bittersweet and earnest as ever. The guitars sound bright and fluent, tempered slightly by distant bells. The production is much closer to the warm, graceful Master and Everyone than the coarse and wind-blown sessions for The Letting Go which were held in Reykjavík, Iceland. Oldham tips his hat to the frozen North again on his cover of Bjork’s ‘I’ve Seen it All’, which easily trumps the Icelandic songstress’ own recorded version on the lukewarm Selmsasongs. The separation between Oldham, Weeks and Baird’s singing grants the song a hymnal quality which is textured and emphasized by fulsome cello accompaniment.

The first oddball cover is a reading of horror-punk outfit Danzig’s ‘Am I Demon’, which maintains the creeping menace of the original with the inclusion of a distant but incandescent electric guitar track which builds and clamours to Oldham’s agitated delivery. Surprisingly, this song is far superior to the version of Phil Ochs’ lyrically bleak ‘My Life’ which follows it. Whilst the original is triumphant and orchestral, Oldham allows the song to meander and it simply leaves you jonesing for the instrumental splendour of the Ochs version. The sole Oldham-penned cut ‘I’m Loving the Street’ more than makes up for the minor mis-step. Upbeat and somewhat jaunty, this song could easily be an outtake from The Letting Go given a richer breath of life by comparatively broader production. ‘The Way I Am’ is an old Merle Haggard cut delivered via weirdo punks the Mekons. Once again, the genius of Oldham is his choice of collaborators and on this track, his backing band weaves magic within the seams of the song. Baird sighs and whispers in the right channel as Weeks lays gorgeous slide guitar drenched in reverb and sure enough, it’s something of an embittered instant classic. “I keep thumbing through the phonebooks and looking for my Daddie’s name in every town”, sings Oldham with abject remorse.

The final two cuts admirably demonstrate the subtle depths of Oldham’s talent. Anyone who can take a trademark Sinatra anthem and immediately follow it with a reworking of an R Kelly song deserves praise, especially when both versions are nearly good enough to be considered definitive. ‘Cycles’ is the Sinatra standard as penned by Gayle Caldwell and the original 1968 version featured Old Blue Eyes at his most dejected. Curiously, Oldham manages to uncover a convincing streak of optimism within the song, lending a belated truth to the line “You know it's almost funny but things can't get worse than now”. Upon hearing closing track ‘The World’s Greatest’ it’s hard to believe it wasn’t written with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy in mind. If the songs of Ask Forgiveness have a shared moral it is honest defiance in the face of unspeakable hardship, which is what makes R Kelly’s original such a fitting climax. Oldham takes the unabashed lyrical poeticism of the original and in his hands the song becomes a clarion of stoic vindication. “In the ring of life, I will reign”, he announces in conclusion. “And the world will notice a king.” Or a Prince, presumably.

Tommy Dski