Will Oldham is back with another new Bonnie “Prince” Billy album: The Purple Bird will arrive on January 31 via No Quarter. The follow-up to 2023’s Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You is led by the single “Our Home,” which features Grammy Award–winning mandolinist Tim O’Brien. The song also comes with a music video filled with stop-motion animations of Oldham and O’Brien performing the song within the confines of picture frames hanging on a dollhouse wall. Watch it below.
Created in Nashville, Tennessee, with producer David “Ferg” Ferguson, who also co-wrote seven of the tracks, The Purple Bird marks just the second time in Oldham’s career that he’s worked with a producer. Though Oldham has collaborated with dozens of other musicians over the years—Tortoise, Bryce Dessner, Matt Sweeney, Bitchin Bajas, and, most recently, Bill Callahan—his indisposition to work with producers further emphasizes this noteworthy decision.
“He’s a giant of a man, an epic musical force, a dear friend,” Oldham said of Ferguson. “Our work together on this record was the result of years of sharing hard times and great joys, songs and stories, of making music together and apart. There’s a lot of trust in this record on Ferg’s part and on mine, and the trust was hard- and well-earned. When I listen to the record, oftentimes I can’t help but laugh in wonder that life allowed me to participate in such a thing.”
In recent years, Oldham shared covers of songs by Johnnie Frierson, Joan Shelley, and Scout Niblett, as well as an old take on the Ramones’ “Outsider” that he recorded with the late David Berman, William Tyler, Chris Scruggs, and longtime collaborator Pete Townsend. He also paid tribute to Berman by linking up with Cassie Berman, Bill Callahan, and others for a special rendition of Silver Jews’ “The Wild Kindness.”
Read about Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “I See a Darkness” in “The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s.”
