Will Oldham, along with his brother Ned on bass, Sebadoh's drummer Jason Lowenstein, pianist Liam Hayes (who also records under the moniker Plush) and lead guitarist Bryan Rich set out to record a ragged and raw folk-tinged country rock-and-blues album (with none other than Steve Albini twiddling the knobs behind the glass) and it's probably my favorite thing Will's done under any of his Palace-named projects (the others being Palace Songs, Palace Brothers, Palace Soundtrack, Palace Contribution and just plain Palace...) and my favorite thing he's done outside of his more well known Bonnie 'Prince' Billy character. The man of 1,000 names...
There's nothing I can ever say that would do justice or be enough praise to Mr. Oldham; to pay homage to one of the greatest American songwriters of the last 30 years by writing this little blurb here and giving you one of his loveliest of records is all I have right now. I strongly recommend you download this album, then get your ass to a record store and start systematically buying the bulk of his discography. Whenever I walk into a record store and see one of his albums I don't yet have (and there aren't that many left) I scoop it up.
