Since 2019’s solo album I Made a Place, Bonnie “Prince” Billy has entertained us with some bountiful collaborations – Superwolves with Matt Sweeney (2021) and Blind Date Party with Bill Callahan (2022). A new release from Will Oldham is always great news in my books and Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You is no exception. We are promised music encompassing broad influences from classical to Japanese acid folk. The lead single ‘Bananas’, watch the video below, is out of this world.
The accompanying album press tells us that Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You (due August 11th via Domino – UK/EU and Drag City US/ROW) presents simply – an album made as it was meant to be heard, in a room. The sound of people together – a sound we’d so recently feared that we’d lost – playing, communing, strings and wood and keys and voices singing. KSWDY presents simply, and is sung along easily and happily within time BUT –is it a family portrait or fairy tale? How does it think the world was made and will end?
Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was recorded in Louisville by Nick Roeder, featuring Sara Louise Callaway on violin, Kendall Carter on keys, Elisabeth Fuchsia on viola and violin, Dave Howard on Mandolin, Drew Miller on saxophone and Dane Waters’ voice. The presence of so many local players and music educators in the band lends not only to a flow of moments so fluidly encompassing a wide range of musics from classical to Japanese acid folk and elsewhere, but, perhaps even more importantly, to the sense of community, heredity and the triumph of inheritance that is the marrow and lifeblood of this music.
Bonny unveils the first KSWDY teaser with a video for “Bananas,” a blue ballad of devotion, doubly crossed with mystery and mischief. Over spartan guitar figures reminiscent of the now-classic Master and Everyone production style, Bonny‘s call-n-response with Dane Waters passes the love around until flowers bloom forth from the desert, cracks in the sidewalk, Mars. It’s exquisite…
The video was made by Ethan Osman.
- Like It or Not
- Behold! Be Held!
- Bananas
- Blood of the Wine
- Sing Them Down Together
- Kentucky is Water
- Willow, Pine and Oak
- Trees of Hell
- Rise and Rule (She Was Born in Honolulu)
- Queens of Sorrow
- Crazy Blue Bells
- Good Morning, Popocatépetl
Preorder “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You” (UK + EU): bonnieprincebilly.ffm.to/kswdy
Preorder “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You” here (US + ROW): bpb.lnk.to/keepingsecrets
To Note: There is an Exclusive CD or Vinyl bundle that includes a cassette of material grown from the same garden plot as Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You.