Left of the Dial	Bonnie "Prince" Billy by Bill Nehill

Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Summer in the Southeast (Sea Note)

Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Tortoise: The Brave and the Bold (Overcoat Recordings)

While Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s—née Will Oldham—music has often been aligned with moods of darkness and despair, his prolific output is indeed dotted with blatant stabs at humor, joy and fun. One doesn’t have to look too far beyond his various promotional photos to see that the intentionally enigmatic songwriter doesn’t take himself too seriously. Released a few months back, Oldham’s first live recording, Summer In The Southeast, takes things a bit further. For the first time, maybe ever, Oldham sounds as if he’s having actual fun playing these songs of pain and heartbreak. Recorded in various red states during his tour of 2005, Summer In The Southeast has the feel of a few friends undergoing a loose and drunken country rock set. Formerly delicate songs, such as “Master And Everyone” and “Death To Everyone,” are transformed into harsh numbers that retain their depth and intimacy while ascending to a new sort of power and immediacy. The classic “I See A Darkness,” notoriously covered by Johnny Cash a few years before his passing, keeps its hushed tone but comes close to a breathtaking gospel feel. Recalling his brother Ned’s band The Anomoanon or even an early-1970s Grateful Dead, Summer In The Southeast is a riotous rediscovery of Oldham’s past few endeavors and is indeed a real hoot.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of Oldham’s collaboration with post-rock bores Tortoise, The Brave And The Bold. Recorded almost a year ago, The Brave And The Bold. is a collection of cover songs ranging from Bruce Springsteen and Elton John to The Minutemen and Lungfish. The choice of covers are intriguing enough but the execution is disappointing. Most of the songs are rearranged past the point of recognition so that all that remains identifiable is the lyrics. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and many of the reconstructions are interesting, but the studio manipulations on Oldham’s voice and the overuse of electronica-based beats and rhythms cause much harm to the material. Songs such as Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” or Lungfish’s fiery “Love Is Love” truly would have shone much brighter in a more gentle and sparse setting. Unfortunately, this sounds like a standard Tortoise record with Oldham guesting; off-based noodling with a singer rambling over it. It’s unfair to a criticize an artist for taking chances and for refusing to sit in the box that his or her audience has created for them but The Brave And The Bold is an experiment gone almost totally wrong.