I will admit, I read a few reviews of this record before buying it and I still had no idea what it was. Even by the time I picked it up I was clueless as to what this record held in store. Was it other people covering Will Oldham songs? Was it Will Oldham Covering other artist's songs? Was it a new Will Oldham record? Well, unless you know anything about Will Oldham, Palace Music/Brothers, or Bonnie Prince Billie, you're probably more confused than I was.
Will Oldham is a Jesus lovin'-beard sportin' country lover. Oldham has released records under multiple names, such as Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Will Oldham, and Bonnie Prince Billy. Every few years, every few releases, or whenever he feels like it, he will start putting out CDs under a different name. Why he does this, I have absolutely no idea. As far as I am concerned, Will has been putting out CDs, cassettes and vinyl since the early 90's.
Oldham plays a rather unique style of your typical singer songwriter fair. The closest comparison I would make is a more southern, more country, and less boring Songs:Ohia. A good percentage of his work has a band backing him, with the occasional completely acoustic tracks thrown in. He writes about God, love, compassion, death, and money, sounding about as honest as Abraham the whole time. What you won't find Oldham singing about is the urban inspired love songs of Bright Eyes or Dashboard Confessional. Once again, in that element, something like Songs:Ohia is more comparable.
So what is this record you ask? Well I sure didn't find out by listening to it. As the first track played, I recognized my favorite Will Oldham song, "New Partner", from the Palace Music CD, Viva Last Blues. It didn't necessarily sound like Oldham singing, and it definitely didn't sound like the same song. I looked around on the internet for a while and finally figured out exactly what this record was. Songs were picked by fans online, Will took the songs to some of the most recognizable and famous Nashville country performers, and along with them, turned these gems into modern day, full on country songs. You will be able to find every one of these songs on older Palace Music/Brothers releases, but that doesn't necessarily mean you would be able to recognize them. This whole record wouldn't exactly sound out of place if played on some of today's top modern country stations.
I am sure fans are eager to put down Will's choices to make this record. Fans will be mad that the iffy recording quality is gone, Will's vocal shake and out of key singing are nowhere to be heard, and that some of his best songs that definitely didn't need to be re-worked, were not only re-worked, but totally overhauled.
The question I am sure you are wondering is, does it work? Well, yeah I would say so. Each song sounds like it was originally made to sound this way, and makes the old versions sound like some unimportant demo sessions. The talent of the artists on this record is pretty dumbfounding, as is the fact that they made such amazing songs sound ten times better.
