Bonnie "Prince" Billy Unveils New Album 'I Made a Place'

Watch him go full cowboy with his "At the Back of the Pit" video

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Sep 10, 2019

Never one to be silent for long, Will Oldham is resurrecting his Bonnie "Prince" Billy name for a new album. Titled I Made a Place, the full-length will arrive on November 15 via Drag City.

For a taste of the new album, we've already got the teaser track "At the Back of the Pit," which has arrived via a video. It was directed by Jacob Forman and finds Oldham going full cowboy among a whole lot of animal masks.

Watch the video for "At the Back of the Pit" below.

As for I Made a Place, Oldham shared the following statement about the new album:

In recent years, the whole world of recorded music, in the way that such music is conceived, perceived, recorded, released and distributed, has been atomized. I tried holding my breath, waiting for the storm to pass, but this storm is here to stay and its devastation is our new landscape. What else is a person to do except what he knows and feels, which for me is making records built out of songs intended for the intimate listening experiences of wonderful strangers who share something spiritually and musically? I started working on these songs thinking that there was no way I was going to finish them and record and release them. This was a constructive frame-of-mind that protected the songs until this frightening moment when we let go of them and give them to you.

Drag City also adds: "Influenced by songwriters John Prine and Tom T. Hall and inspired by the state of Hawaii, I Made a Place finds Bonny using his considerable powers for good."

The record features contributions from guitarist Nathan Salsburg, drummer Mike Hyman and singer-songwriter Joan Shelley. While Oldham released various Bonnie "Prince" Billy albums in recent years, I Made a Place marks his first for Drag City since 2011's Wolfroy Goes to Town.

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