Album review
Will Oldham isn’t used to working with outside producers, but his collaboration with David “Ferg” Ferguson has been a long time coming. He met the seasoned producer over twenty years ago while Johnny Clash was recording a cover of his classic Bonnie “Prince” Billy track, ‘I See a Darkness’; Ferguson engineered the record it appeared on, American III. Having maintained a deep friendship with Ferg, who even played at his wedding, Oldham cherishes the opportunity to finally make an album together, traveling down to Nashville and assembling a stellar cast of musicians and local heroes for the sessions that became The Purple Bird. The result is a countrified take on a Bonnie “Prince” Billy album, equal parts wry and wistful, but more hopeful than it once might have sounded: still seeing a darkness, perhaps – “the oceanic tumble of think,” as he puts it on ‘New Water’ – but learning to wash it away and rise to the morning light. It’s well worth the wait and trouble.
1. Turned to Dust (Rolling On)
With a writing assist from bluegrass musician Ronnie Bowman, Oldham opens the album with the sound of wistful acceptance. The subject omitted in the title of The Purple Bird’s first song is, of course, Earth itself; the proposed solution in parenthesis. Yet it sounds neither totally bleak nor didactic, more like sharing in the casual wisdom life’s handed him as “something to think upon.” And relying on love, or just getting along, is no doubt a comforting thought.
2. London May
Oldham may contend that “after our horrific night comes bright day,” but he’s certainly not one to turn away from the darkness. The piano motif on ‘London May’ alone is enough to make you tremble with fear, which is accentuated by Stuart Duncan’s fiddle. Yet it takes less than one verse for Oldham to dissipate the clouds, countering death’s stare with the choice of “thoughtful action.” Brit Taylor’s backing vocals sound wonderful here, even as he joins him on the album’s most strikingly mournful line: “Love overcomes nothing despite one’s needs.” Stick that in your fridge!
3. Tonight With the Dogs I’m Sleeping
The band appropriately rowdies up the mood with this exuberant singalong about a husband “who’s a-gonna get his ass chewed tonight.” (Fun!) It’s a familiar country trope, but Oldham and his crew sound delighted to be offering their own interpretation.
4. Boise, Idaho
Oldham puts one of his most exquisite melodies to good use on ‘Boise, Idaho’, where bad behaviour gives way to genuine heartbreak. Any sense of rambunctiousness or humour has fully melted away, leading not just to confusion but a solid sense of responsibility: “Nothing’s worth the hell I put her through.” Pat McLaughlin, on mandolin and, along with Brit Taylor and Adam Chaffin, additional vocals, is there to console. It’s very much needed.
5. The Water’s Fine
“This whole world is dying/ Don’t it seem like a good time for swimming,” Adrianne Lenker sang on last year’s Bright Future, a sentiment Oldham vibrantly echoes on ‘The Water’s Fine’. We’ve all got our troubles; sometimes we need to be alone, sometimes we need an anthem of commiseration. It’s fine. It’s good. Pretty great, actually.
6. Sometimes It’s Hard to Breathe
There’s a weathered optimism, not just in Oldham’s lyrics, but in his voice as he sings, “We can do it, we can make it, for a while.” He knows we’ve heard this one before, but there’s not much else we can do than bear hope, truth, and faith: The Purlple Bird’s value triad. This one’s got a spectral hue, particularly thanks to Duncan’s fiddle and Russ Pahl’s electric guitar.
7. New Water
‘The Water’s Fine’ is subtitled ‘The Therapeutic Value of Watery Spaces’, which could also apply to ‘New Water’, if you were to replace “watery spaces” with simply “a drink.” It’s a rueful and poetic take on the same concept – a little lonelier, too.
8. Guns Are for Cowards
This is a song about who you’d shoot in the face, where else you might shoot them, and how you’ll feel afterward: “Exalted or destroyed?” It’s a strange question basically answered by the song’s polka arrangement, which the band definitely exalts in, making us all cowards for enjoying it.
9. Downstream [feat. John Anderson]
The album’s crowning moment, ‘Downstream’ adds weight to the running theme of water’s healing properties, the serious counterpart to ‘The Water’s Fine’ – both songs were written with country legend John Anderson (“Together! With John Anderson!” Oldham exalts in the press bio). The sheer presence of Anderson’s voice on the track, which also features Eamon Dillon on Uilleann pipes, lends gravity to the track, echoing his 1996 duet with Merle Haggard called ‘The Winds of Change’. Together, they ponder a step further: What’s in the water? Is it really as fine as it seems? If it’s changing, what happens then? Should we still jump on in? Better tread carefully – and treat it with care, like we should’ve.
10. One of These Days (I’m Gonna Spend the Whole Night With You)
The singer himself calls this “a silly old song,” but it’s one of the most earnest on the album. More romantic than melancholy, which differentiates from the other slow-paced songs on The Purple Bird, it hopes to make something permanent out of a budding romance. His chances look pretty good.
11. Is My Living in Vain?
The album takes a dark turn with the penultimate track, a stripped-back cover of The Clark Sisters’ 1980 gospel song. It’s one of those rare songs of despair that directly responds to its own questioning: “No no, of course it is not.” As for why, the answers are all over The Purple Bird.
12. Our Home [feat. Tim O’Brien]
The Purple Bird would be a different album had Oldham ended it with ‘Is My Living in Vain?’, or any other song, instead of ‘Our Home’, a joyful embrace of the idea of home as something shared and (re)buildable. Veteran multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Tim O’Brien’s mandolin shines through more than any other individual element, though it’s the collective spirit that really lifts the song up. “You’re only as good as the people you know,” Oldham sings, not just proving his point, but turning it into something to rejoice in.
