#will oldham

[cinematicjourney]

Old Joy (2006) | dir. Kelly Reichardt

#old joy #kelly reichardt #will oldham #daniel london #films #movies #cinematography #scenery #screencap

[theoscarsproject]

Matewan (1987). A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.

Movies about American unions, particularly American unions in coal country, are remarkably common, but few manage the level of grit, honesty and hope that Matewan does. What a great film! Really drums home the resilience of this community and the challenges of unifying workers when those at the top are all too willing to exploit differences of race, gender and class in order to divide. Just a great, well-made film. 8/10.

#matewan #1987 #Oscars 60 #Nom: Cinematography #john sayles #chris cooper #james earl jones #mary mcdonnell #will oldham #america #american #strike #union #mining #1920s #8/10

[ascension-13]

...Bonnie "Prince" Billy...

(Will Oldham)

"Strange Form Of Life"

2006.

----‐----------

"Strange Form of Life"

A strange form of life kicking through windows, rolling on yards

Heading in loved ones, triggering odds

A strange one

And a hard way to come into a cabin, into the weather

Into a path walking together

A hard one

And the softest lips ever, twenty-five years of waiting to kiss them

Smiling and waiting to bend down and kiss twice

The softest lips

And a dark little room across the nation, you found myself racing

Forgetting the strange and the hard and the soft kiss

In the dark room

And a strange form of life kicking through windows, rolling on yards

Heading in loved ones, triggering odds

A strange one

--------------

#bonnie prince billy #will oldham #strange form of life

[dustedmagazine]

Bonnie “Prince” Billy — Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You (Drag City)

Photo by Urban Wyatt

Will Oldham’s latest album as Bonnie “Prince” Billy has a deceptive simplicity. It is mostly framed in casual, campfire strumming and homespun stringed accents. Its lyrics scan in a predictable, folk-infused manner, following steady rhythms in waltz-time and four-four; they are delivered with wry, unflappable confidentiality, however surreal or fanciful they turn. Keeping Secrets feels like, itself, a bit of a hidden gem, murmured at you rather than shouted, a quiet one but a grower. You might imagine a family gathering, after dinner, playing for the joy of it, a vibe that Oldham captures in his understated single, “Crazy Blue Bells,” when he croons, “Someday when there’s time to sing, a few of us will gather, and raise a voice to anything because everything matters.”

This is not to say that there is anything austere about Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You. On the contrary, these songs bloom like an old-fashioned garden, outwardly modest but wafting heady perfume and color in your direction. “Bananas” is a gentle knock-out, as it buzzes with glorious, dizzying harmonies (Dane Waters sings back-up) and ends with an operatic high note, hushed but also astonishing. “Blood of the Wine” drapes lush folds of string sound over its minor key jitter, skittering jewel-like mandolin trills over Appalachian lament. Oldham benefits from some real skill in his backing band, which includes 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 singing.

Of course, Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s casual music get together is better than yours will ever be, because of who he is, a master of whimsy and existential dread and a consummate constructor of metaphor. That’s on the verbal side; he is also quite good at melody. His songs curve and flower in pleasing ways that are not quite unexpected, but not a cliché either. They sound familiar when you hear them first and burn in slowly over multiple hearings.

On the verbal side, I’d give the nod to “Willow, Pine, and Oak,” a gently coruscating examination of human failure, cast in the form of an extended meditation on trees. Here are willows, sucking up all the water, and pines, showy but prickly and oozing resin, and oaks, the best by far, on the basis of strength and constancy. It’s the sort of extended metaphor that is simultaneously exact about its subject and its larger poetical applications, and instead of quoting the words, I urge you to just listen to it once or twice and here how well it does what it does. The melody of this song is lovely, too, with swooning lashes of string sound and the most subliminal kind of harmonies. It is sort of perfect despite the degree of difficulty. If I were a diving judge I’d give it a 10.

For sheer sonic beauty, however, the prize is harder to award, so let’s split it between haunting “Bananas” and more ebullient “Behold! Beheld!,” both quiet and unassuming but full of grace. It’s a gift to be simple. Keeping Secrets is that sort of present.

Jennifer Kelly

#bonnie prince billy #will oldham #keeping secrets will destroy you #drag city #jennifer kelly #albumreview #dusted magazine #folk #country #Youtube

[aquariumdrunkard]

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy ::  Once Again In The World (Selected Songs, 1998-2020)

Spanning 1998-2020, Once Again In The World is a collection of rare and unreleased tracks from Will Oldham as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. Released last year, via the Portland, OR based Antiquated Future Records, the set acts as a companion the label’s other Oldham offering, Time From Work To Go (Selected Songs, 1992-1998), gathering fifteen curios from the previous Palace era.

#will oldham #Bonnie Prince Billy

[dare-g]

Tripping With Caveh (2004)

#tripping with caveh #caveh zahedi #will oldham #documentary #talks

[thequietabsolute]

#saved before the death of an old camera roll #n. #bonnie prince billy #will oldham #favourite musician #music #SoundCloud

[innovacancy]

Bonnie "Prince" Billy 3S Artspace, Portsmouth, NH 2 October 2023

#bonnie prince billy #will oldham

[beginningspod]

It's time for Beginnings, the podcast where writer and performer Andy Beckerman talks to the comedians, writers, filmmakers and musicians he admires about their earliest creative experiences and the numerous ways in which a creative life can unfold.

On today's episode, I talk to musician and actor Will Oldham. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Will was an actor before becoming a musician, appearing in John Sayles' Matewan as a teenager, as well as in films like Old Joy, Junebug and The Guatemalan Handshake, as well as TV shows like Wonder Showzen. In the early '90s, he began playing music as Palace - or more accurately, as different permutations of the name Palace - but a few years later, adopted the Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker which he's used ever since his 1999 album I See a Darkness. In the last two plus decades, he's released almost two dozen albums, some collaborations with artists like Bill Callahan and Matt Sweeney, and his latest Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was just released in August on Drag City, and like everything else Will does, it's fantastic!

I'm on Twitter here and you can get the show with:

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#beginnings #will oldham #palace #drag city #bonnie prince billy

[laserpinksteam]

Film after film: A Ghost Story (dir. David Lowery, 2017)

Beautifully photographed, cropped, and edited, this film has a slightly wobbly narrative node with a time loop that seems to be there just because otherwise the plot wouldn't close. It also contains the most annoying tirade about creativity and longevity by Will Oldham. But otherwise, and also because of that, it's a great film, overwhelmingly sad, which Lowery pulls off thanks to the most straightforward and aching portrayal of a ghost.

#filmafterfilm #david lowery #casey affleck #rooney mara #will oldham #a ghost story

[randomrichards]

MATEWAN:

Drifter comes to town

Unites miners from all walks

To form a union

#matewan #criterion collection #random richards #poem #haiku #poetry #haiku poem #poets on tumblr #haiku poetry #haiku form #poetic #chris cooper #james earl jones #david strathairn #mary mcdonnell #will oldham #ken jenkins #kevin tighe #gordon Clapp #bob gunton #john sayles #union #Youtube

[adsmusiconstellations]

Silver Jews - Punks In The Beerlight (Tanglewood Numbers, 2005)

#punks in the beerlight #silver jews #tanglewood numbers #2005 #2000s #rock #indie rock #david berman #stephen malkmus #mark nevers #william tyler #william eggleston #will oldham #bobby bare jr #bob nastanovich #drag city #mike fellows #tony crow #paz lenchantin

[fungi-maestro]

#i see a darkness #will oldham #playlist #not the most hum-able but i have a soft spot for songs that are more like letters than they are music #Spotify #and i feel like this is a relatable song

[aktionpak]

Palace Music - Old Jerusalem

Over the years i've gotten better at a few things but have a longer track record of regression. Over-thinking is one of the largest back steps i think. Lately, i sit up nights, terrified of all the real people who are so unabashedly hateful/self-serving. The word "genocide" comes up too many dozens of times every day. And it's harder to find distractions or comfort in most media. Going back to all the early Will Oldham records is one way i stop thinking for a few minutes. This song, off of Viva Last Blues is possibly underrated, or maybe i just haven't seen it on any of the subsequent Palace collections. I haven't bothered trying to interpret the religiosity over the last 25 years. Why bother with that? It just hangs in the air and fills a room if you want it to.

This one hits in a similar way

#Will Oldham #Palace Music #Free Palestine #Free Thugger #Free Rio #Free the Sudanese #Or just walk away #Youtube

[dare-g]

The Guatemalan Handshake (2006)

#the guatemalan handshake #todd rohal #will oldham #katy haywood #ken byrnes #sheila scullin #kathleen kennedy #rich schreiber #cory mcabee #talks