Backseat Sandbar

Drag City has released a taste of Bonny Billy’s new album with The Picket Line.  It is one of my favorite songs off of I See a Darkness, “Death to Everyone.”  They played it in Lexington at the Old Tarr Distillery (now Buster’s) and it may have been the highlight of the show.  It is a spiced up version of the original and, if you haven’t heard it, I think you’ll like it.  Unfortunately, it won’t be on the actual release.  It was recorded for it, but didn’t make the final cut.  Not sure why.  Here is a list of the songs that will be on the album:

Funtime Comedown:

01 Ohio River Boat Song
02 May It Always Be
03 Hemlocks and Primroses
04 The Glory Goes / Wolf Among Wolves
05 We All Us Three Will Ride
06 Easy Does It
07 Lay and Love
08 Rider
09 Rambling Fever
10 You Want That Picture
11 Idle Hands Are the Devil’s Playthings

Bonny Billy w/ The Picket Line- Death to Everyone

More details…

Bonnie “Prince” Billy has announced a new live LP (with digital download) through Drag City with The Picket Line called Funtown Comedown.  I could not be more excited for this album.  The album comes out November 17th December 15th, but you can PRE-ORDER HERE. (Thanks to Dan Lubbers for the heads-up.)

From Drag City:

LIVE (in the studio) is the Bonny one with next-generation bluegrass band known as The Picket Line. They’re the official dance band of Funtown, a metaphysical little community in the woods outside Louisville. Bonny and the boys (and girl) run through a set of BPB classics, some Palace songs and a few classic country covers. VINYL ONLY! (And download exclusively on the new-and-retro-improved www.dragcity.com!)

Abut the pressing…

Vinyl LP pressing. 2009 intimate live recording by Will Oldham (AKA Bonnie Prince Billy) and young Bluegrass band The Picket Line. In the wilds of greater outer Louisville Kentucky, there is a place called Funtown. You won’t find it on any map, and you might just lose yourself in the woods out there trying to pin it down to the ground as well. Yet, Funtown is a place, as much as it is a place of mind. It was in this place, in a clearing and on the shores of a pond, that Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy and The Picket Line combined forces to play his music and their music and other people’s music for a community of people to hear and watch and swing and step to. Live in front of friends and family is the way of Funtown. It was as fun as it sounds and more, in ways which have mostly been channeled down to the two sides of a groove and presented to you here, wrapped twice in full-color sleeves.

PRE-ORDER HERE

Here is a video of Bonny Billy and The Picket Line playing the “Ohio River Boat Song” at the Old Tarr Distillery:

If you didn’t already know, BUSTER’S is going to be back in Lexington.  Once leveled with The Dame for a big ass hotel/corporate building, both venues are now back up and running, only in different locations.  The new Buster’s is located in the Old Tarr Distillery and will be able to host shows with about a 1,000 person capacity.  It will be interesting in how it turns out, but it is definately a void that Lexington needed filled. Best of luck to Buster’s.  Headliner’s may need to step it up with the new competition.

From BizLex…

Buster’s Billiards and Backroom will open this August in the Distillery District’s Old Tarr Distillery. The design, by architect and interior designer Rebecca Burnworth, sets aside one third of the floor plan to recreate Buster’s in the style that was known and loved by loyal patrons of its previous spot on the southwest corner of Main and Upper, with the remaining two-thirds, the “Backroom,” to become a 1,000-plus capacity rock hall, featuring all the amenities required to attract top touring bands and accommodate the crowds they are expected to draw.

…[the] concept evolved, blending a regular bar and a rock hall and creating a missing link in the chain of mid-sized music venues that agents for up-and-coming national acts look for as they plot the routing of their touring clients — bands currently bypassing Lexington to play Louisville’s Headliners and Cincinnati’s Bogart’s.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy surfaced again last night in Lexington, Kentucky at the Old Tarr Distillery for a Save the Hemlocks Benefit.  I was one of the lucky 300 who got to see Oldham at Funtown back in July, and it was a no brainer to make the short trip to Lex and see this performance.

Bonnie Billy and Thomas A. Minor and the Picket Line took the stage after The Englishmen and The Swells, but immediately ran into sound problems.  There were a few kinks in the sound for the other bands, but when Oldham and Co. took the stage, all the mics were off and the lights were out.  After a pretty long delay, a few of the stage lights were illuminated, but the sound was still on the fritz.  The show went on, however, and Oldham sang the first three songs without a mic.  He opened with “Easy Does It,” a song he would later play again when the sound problem was fixed (or at least improved).  After a few shots at people from Lexington (largely directed at the sound guys), a couple mics were restored and the band shared them the best they could.  At one point Oldham was doing push-ups while singing into a mic set on the floor next to a guitar amp.

Despite this setback, it is hard to say anything negative about the show.  Oldham focused the Funtown show almost entirely on his new album, Lie Down in the Light, but at this show, he pulled from deep in his discography, including “Ohio River Boat Song” (see video below) and “Death to Everyone.”  He also played a Sam Cooke cover, “A Change is Gonna Come,” commenting that Obama quoted the song in his acceptance sppech (you can also see this video below the break). After a pretty long set (including down time for technical difficulties), the guys took a short break and came back for a three song encore, finishing with “Lie Down in the Light.”  No one left dissappointed and was warmed by thier Bonnie Billy experience, at least until we exited in droves into the below freezing winter night.

Oldham’s next stop is in Brazil, then on to Italy.  Our next chance to see him will be on March 12, 2009 in Bloomington, Indiana at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre.  He is set to release another album, Beware, five days after this show, so perhaps we will be able to hear some of his new stuff.

For information about how to help save Kentucky’s Hemlocks, click the image below…

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy- Ohio River Boat Song

For video & tons of photos, (more…)

I’m lazy today, so I’m just posting some very important reminders. Tomorrow is Vampire Weekend at the Old Tarr Distillery in LexTown

You Ain’t No Picasso, WRFL & W Weekly are all cosponsoring Vampire Weekend at Old Tarr Distillery.

Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod
Vampire Weekend – Exit Music (for a film)

The new album comes out January 29th

The tour these guys are doing is amazing. To see that & video

UPDATE: Check out pics and a review of the show over at Critical Acclaim

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