AM I DEMON?

it's been a long stange trip w/will oldham. i won't pretend like i understand him. hell, i don't understand bradley or vaughn & i've known them coming onto 40years now. i've only been familiar w/oldham for the 15 years he's been recording. for reasons now unknown to me, i got oldham's first album as "palace brothers", there is no-one what will care for you, & he pretty much had me after the first song ("idle hands are the devil's playthings"). don't get me wrong here. there was plenty on that first album that had me furrowing my brow & hitting the fast forward button. & i SURE didn't consider this "rock & roll" like he did/does.

over the years, there's been more brow furrowing. each album has been quite an adventure & you just never knew what to expect. his active attempts to defy pigeonholing were everywhere: from the style of each album to the individual songs to each new moniker he chose to present himself under(palace brothers, palace music, palace, will oldham, bonnie prince billy). the two constants in all the change were his voice( a "fragile sort of warble" "oddly strangled")& his songwriting. the songwriting turns on odd phrasing & run-on sentences, colloquialisms & double entendres & explores moments of evil & good, death & redemption:

"Well I hope that someday, buddy
We have peace in our lives
Together or apart
Alone or with our wives
That we can stop our whoring
And pull the smiles inside
And light it up forever
And never go to sleep
My best unbeaten brother
This isn't all I see

O no I see a darkness"

will oldham's new album is out this week. it's another work done by his alter-ego, bonnie prince billy. oldham is moving away from the smaller lo-fi sound he pretty much introduced w/palace & the first couple of "bpb" albums. the sound on this & the last album is a larger, more straightforward country sound. it may be that his "bonnie prince billy does palace music" album was the turning point for this new sound. the idea of that album, that his current persona revisit & re-do songs of his earlier persona w/a band of professional nashville musicians, was a terrific conceit & some of the new versions were excellent(tho none really surpassed the originals). the band he's using now isn't nashville pros but they're tight, multi-intrumentalists who can waltz or reel or jig w/the best of them.

the new sound has alarmed many of oldham's older fans. personally, i don't get their alarm or their concerns. this new sound is nothing like the shock we all felt when cohen released death of a ladies man or dylan put out self portrait. will oldham isn't a pretender. he may well be a lot of other things but he does not pretend any more than flannery o'connor pretended. these different personas allow him to approach different ideas(musical styles, point of view, instrumentation, etc) & explore them from angles not otherwise available to him. they can also be abandoned more easily too(again, for whatever reason).

does he need the personas? apparently, oldham feels he does. it could be his early career in acting or just an innate feeling of the need for security in a pretty insecure & insincere business. certainly, dylan & neil young showed us that a musician can go his own way but they've paid a price for it. from the reaction of some of his fans to the last two albums, oldham's paying too despite the "bpb" moniker. for the next couple of albums, i expect him to stay the course & work this vein for a while longer. the last two albums are nearly as strong as his "bpb" masterpiece, i see a darkness. his singing & songwriting appear energized by the new direction like a weight of some kind has been lifted from him. maybe he's simply moved beyond worrying about pleasing his fans:

"I will toil for years and years
Give you muscle, tone and tears
Overcome and flay all fears
Leaving me – a beast for thee"