Early on in the recording of his 22nd studio album, The Purple Bird, Will Oldham – the artist frequently known as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, received some advice from his producer, David “Ferg” Ferguson. “You sing, Willy,” he told him. “You just sing, and everyone’s gonna follow you.”
At that moment, Oldham was in the studio with a group of session musicians described by Ferguson as “the best available band in Nashville”; between them, they had worked with artists such as Bob Dylan, John Prine and T Bone Burnett, to name but three. The idea of “just singing” was as perplexing as it was daunting.
