will oldham

Thirty years ago this month, Will Oldham released his third full-length album, Viva Last Blues, under the moniker Palace Music. Oldham proved that a DIY aesthetic could be married with American folk traditions to create something new and profound. The album’s lasting impact is not about its specific sound but about its radical artistic ethos: a record doesn’t need to be pristine to be a timeless masterpiece.

For all its apparent familiarity, The Purple Bird is a country record that nobody else could have possibly made. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is still doing things entirely his own way, and he sounds as good as ever. Long may it continue.

Taken from his forthcoming new album ‘The Purple Bird’, Bonnie “Prince” Billy shares his latest single, Downstream, an eco-ballad co-written with and featuring Nashville legend John Anderson.

Watch Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s new video ‘London May’, named after, and featuring, the musician/actor. Directed by Sai Selvarajan it starts off moody and dark and gives way to a hopeful optimism.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy announces his new studio album ‘The Purple Bird’, made in Nashville with producer David “Ferg” Ferguson and an ensemble of A-list session musicians. Watch the video for their lead single ‘Our Home’, featuring Tim O’Brien.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Nathan Salsburg, and Tyler Trotter transform “Hear The Children Sing” and “The Evidence,” two songs by Baltimore punk/post-hardcore band Lungfish, into enchanting and beautiful meditations.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy shares the video/single “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You”, the title track of his latest album that doesn’t appear on the album…instead it stands marvellously on its own. Watch the accompanying video directed by Adam Laity.

Directed by Jacob Forman, watch the video for Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s “Willow, Pine and Oak” – “When first proposing the video to me, Will posed it as a challenge of sorts— to stray from my typical home of the handheld camera and attempt to capture that same sort of intimacy with a tripod. To ‘lock it down,’ in his words…”

While ‘Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You’ is recognisably a Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album, it is also a slight departure. These songs have a life-affirming quality, a willingness to exist in the present, and as a result, this is one of Will Oldham’s most rewarding albums.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy announces his new album ‘Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You’ and shares lead single & video ‘Bananas’ – Bonny’s call-n-response with Dane Waters passes the love around until flowers bloom forth from the desert…

On 21st April, Shorty’s Ark, the debut picture book from Will Oldham and illustrator Lori Damiano will be published via Drag City. The book is based on the song by Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney – watch them performing the song live.

Taken from their Superwolves album, Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy share their video for ‘Resist the Urge’ made by legendary skateboarder Kevin “Spanky” Long and photographer/skateboarder Atiba Jefferson.