Bonnie "Prince" Billy at Rough Trade East

Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Rough Trade East, 1 December 2024

I finally got to see Bonnie "Prince" Billy live in the intimate atmosphere of Rough Trade East and after he even gave me a cookie! What a perfect night.

For years I have been meaning to catch Will Oldham, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy, live but somehow I seemed to miss every time he played London. I think when I first discovered his music, back in the Ease Down The Road days in the early 2000s, I simply wasn't going to many shows at the time, but after that I have no excuses really. It felt strange to me that an artist I've listened to so much over the years I had never experienced live. But what a wonderful way to correct that wrong than by seeing him for the first time in the intimate atmosphere of Rough Trade East, where I also got to meet the man himself after.

It's always nice to be at the front at these Rough Trade East events and it was exciting to see the sole seat on the stage awaiting the man himself, who we saw happily drifting around the record store beforehand. It was clear he was in a good mood and even more so when he finally arrived to take his seat for the performance, as apparently he had just had a curry (he told us this while rubbing his belly).

Oldham was a slight figure, smaller than I expected, but striking with his full old-fashioned moustache, and tonight, wearing purple glitter on his cheeks, to celebrate his forthcoming new album, The Purple Bird, he tells us, which is due out early next year.

Placing the acoustic guitar (borrowed for the night, he admits), between his legs and holding it almost upright, he looks almost as if he should be on a back porch somewhere in the old South, singing traditional country tunes, and to be fair, tonight wasn't far from that.

I had expected tonight to be all about showcasing the new record, and he did indeed preview some new tracks from that, but I was pleasantly surprised when he opened with Gulf Shores, an old Palace Music tune that he later re-recorded for the Bonnie "Prince" Billy album, Sings Greatest Palace Music. His voice tonight sounds full, deep and beautifully weary.

It's clear Oldham is in a good mood, he is cheerful and charming. I don't know why, but I didn't expect him to be so warm and lovely and full of stories. He tells us that in tribute to his late friend Steve Albini, who shockingly died suddenly earlier this year, he would be pausing later in the show to take questions (as Albini used to do this when performing with his band Shellac). Later he does briefly say, "if anyone has a question for me now", and no one says anything, so he swiftly moves on, but the moment was had nevertheless. I'm sure Albini would have appreciated it.

After, Like It Or Not, from his last record Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You (great title, right?), he played a song from one of his collaborations with Matt Sweeney, called Good To My Girls. I hadn't listened closely enough to the lyrics, but assumed it was a wholesome love song, thankfully after Oldham told us it was in fact inspired by a photo book about a red light district in Mumbai and is told from the perspective of a Madam!

After giving us some lovely songs old and new, Oldham admits that he's really in town doing interviews for his new album, The Purple Bird, and gives us a preview of four songs from the record, starting with an upbeat, toe-tapping and joyful number called Our Home, that sounds like an old Carter Family number.

He then spoke about how he's been working with John Prine's son Tommy (who I actually saw earlier this year supporting Margo Price), and together they came up with a track that channels Hank Williams and indeed the subsequent song, Tonight With The Dogs I'm Sleeping, was a fun tale of a man being chucked out by his missus, and did sound like a jaunty Hank tune!

I was even more taken with a new track called London May, which he said, sounds like he's posing a question, "London may do what?" he says, but in fact it's a name of a man, the drummer London May, who Oldham became friends with while on tour in the 1980s with Samhain, Glenn Danzig's band between the Misfits and his solo stuff. Oldham was on the road with them taking photos (I really didn't expect to come to a Bonnie "Prince" Billy show and hear Danzig being discussed!). Later May went to work for Oh Boy Records, John Prine's record label, and Oldham seemed to love the connections all coming together. But this isn't what inspired the song, it was May asking him to provide a song for a scene of "a real B-movie horror" he had just made where a record is put on just before a bloody murder, and Oldham was inspired by May's beautiful name and decided to write the lyrics by starting each line with the letters of his name (each letter of London formed the verses, while each letter of May was the chorus). I listened intently to how he did this and was utterly awe-stuck: it sounded so natural and poetic, and the song itself was a thing of beauty. What an incredible songwriter he is!

He then mentioned how he started the set with a song that was a "place song", the aforementioned Gulf Shores, a place that he made up because he wanted to figure out how Jimmy Buffet "sold so many records, with such relatively terrible music" and he thought maybe it had to do with the "geographic association of his lyrics". Just amazing to think that tender and beautiful song was inspired by none other than Jimmy Buffet! And now he's written another "place song", this time a real place, Boise, Idaho, written with two other songwriters that proved to be a "revelatory experience".  The song itself was utterly lovely, incredibly plaintive and moving, about a man leaving his old life and hometown, and sounded like a future classic.

Oldham told us that there is one cover song on the new record, Is My Living In Vain, a track originally by a Detroit gospel group called The Clark Sisters, that came out in the early 80s. He said that recording the album in Nashville, he realised that most of the music on it, other than himself, was by "old white men over the age of 60" and to balance this out, he added this incredible tune by these black sisters who are still out there performing. I'm glad he did because the emotion and pain in the song and his rendition of it, was utterly compelling.

After talking about the depressing state of the world at the moment and how it was just Thanksgiving in the States, he spoke about the importance of gratitude and how grateful he was that he was able to live such a gratifying musical life. "One of the greatest things we can do is to revel in the things that we do have," he thoughtfully pondered, especially given that so many others are going through such terrible things at the moment, and how "insanely fortunate" we are. It was a nice moment.

For a novice at seeing Oldham live, it was incredibly moving too that he performed I See A Darkness, which I suppose it could be said is his signature song and it sent chills down my spine to finally hear it live, standing so close to him as he performed it.

Another magical moment came when Oldham asked for requests and responded to one for Raining In Darling (also from his classic album I See A Darkness). He told us that he had been performing the song in Ireland this year with the Irish singer Nuala Kennedy and she had written a second verse for it, which he was going to try and remember tonight. The song went smoothly for the most part and his voice sounded soaring and moving, it was a joy to hear, and amusingly he did forget the new lyrics a little! But it didn't distract from the glory of the song, it just made it all the most memorable.

Finally, he ended the set with a new song called Life Is Scary (Horses), which he explained was inspired by Sally Timms of The Mekons, and a song she wrote called Horses, which he used to cover all the time. He decided, to write his own version of it "so I can reap the mountains and mountains of uncountable profits I will make by making it my own," he said jokingly. The lilting song was lovely, with a nice positive vibe and ended things on such a hopeful note. It's a shame it's not on the new album!

Because the show was so delightful I decided to wait around for the signing and strangely I felt super nervous to meet Will Oldham and by the time it was my turn, my heart was truly pounding away. 

Other people seemed to have nice chats with him, and he was incredibly lovely to everyone. When I finally met him I told him I didn't have any questions, I was so nervous to meet him. "Don't be nervous," he said, smiling, "just listen to Sinatra singing!" And indeed Ol' Blue Eyes was crooning away in the background, and Oldham began singing the song to me! It certainly did make me feel better and then, after signing a lovely print for the new album we were given, he shook my hand and gave me a cookie, and sent me on my way. What a charming man he is and what a fantastic performer and storyteller. I really couldn't have asked for a better first experience of seeing him live.