There are few frontmen who can rock a pair of faded dungarees on stage and still command the fawning admiration of their audience.
But then the man otherwise known as Will Oldham has built a career on a resolutely anti-star approach, dodging interviews wherever possible and instead allowing his prolific output to tell his story.
His latest, remarkably accessible, record Beware brims with joy and rich instrumentation, and Tuesday’s performance saw the Bonnie Prince backed by a group of crack musicians who brought lashings of texture and dynamism to the songs.
My Life’s Work moved between a hushed reverence for Oldham’s words and a lurching, bombastic chorus that made the studio recording sound a little gutless.
There was an anorak-ish glee in watching these top-drawer musicians find their way around the songs; the whole performance had a fluid, partly-improvised feel that frequently snatched the songs back from the brink of becoming too steeped in the Americana that forms the basis of Oldham’s sound.
His voice too was on good form – albeit too low in the mix against the guitars – and his cracked, dry vocal was the foundation stone for some beautiful, soaring harmonies that found their peak for Aint You Wealthy, Aint You Wise? from Master And Everyone.
But you can have too much of a good thing. Beware clocks in at just over 40 minutes, so the listener isn’t dragged too far out of the screen door and into the range, but a full performance from the Prince can prove a little too rich over time.
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