Camp Revival

My mailbox is expecting a very special parcel from Drag City Records.

This is the first time in a couple years that I have held out to listen to a record until the moment I have it in my hands. It reminds me of a simpler age where men were men, dames were dames, and records were listened to on the album release date.

Remember that anticipation of trying to find a weak spot in the shrink wrap? The exhilarating anxiety as the needle met the vinyl, ready for that first wave of sound? It’s been a while since I’ve done that.

Anyway, the record is Beware, the newest offering of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. And I have not yet heard it. But I have deduced the following three things from the tracklist and album art speculation:

1. There may be Neil Young influences therein. Observe the album art of these records.

2. With song titles like ‘Death Final’, ‘You Are Lost’, and ‘I Am Goodbye’, I reminded of another one of Will Oldham’s records that carried songs like ‘Death to Everyone, ‘I See A Darkness’, and ‘Today I Was An Evil One’. If Beware is anything like I See A Darkness, we’re in for quite the treat, not to mention one of the best records of the year.

3. If my above theory is true, it possibly leads me to believe that this is the end of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s music- but not necessarily the cessation of Will Oldam’s music. Darkness was the first record under the Bonnie moniker, and Beware would seem to tie everything up in a neat chiastic package. Oldham seems to have an endless supply of music psuedonyms (Palace, Palace Music, Palace Brothers, Amalgamated Sons of Rest, etc.), so I would not be suprised if this was the end of Bonnie, and the beginning of something new…

Enough with the speculation- let March 17 be the judge. Again, I could be very wrong, and we may have a calypso record on our hands. We’ll see.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy on Drag City Records