Others find pleasure in things you despise? Have a taste of country-gone-Northern soul. Spirit-soul, that is, as Scotland’s Alasdair Roberts leads the band for Bill Callahan and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy to sing o'er, recasting a bit of Dave Rich’s indelible Nashville gospel into something more copacetic with his syncretic socio-musical imaginings. As fragrant wah-wah leads weave and genuine Nashville-strung guitars strum in front of a gentle fiddle march in ¾, Bonnie sings lead, with Bill's bass harmony vocals winding in and out of the droning waltz. Brother Callahan steps forward to testify at several key moments, and hands reach across the water all over the place, with the redolence of Gram and Emmylou, Richard and Linda, Shirley and Dolly, Bob and The Band, The Albion Country Band and all of their forebears, kith and kin stretching from here back to the horizon.
Cover artwork by Elsa Hansen Oldham, shown at Soccer Club Club as a part of Domestic Evil II, September 2018.
