Last update - 00:00 18/01/2007
A visitor in disguise
By Ben Shalev
A few years ago, a journalist from The Guardian traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to interview singer Will Oldham. Oldham, however, felt very uncomfortable talking with reporters, and the thought of being interviewed made him ill. The attempt to photograph him was even more of a failure. At first he refused. Then he agreed to be photographed in disguise, but did not show up for the photo session.
"Why are you trying to interview this guy?" the photographer asked.
"Because I consider him to be the finest songwriter to come out of America in the past 10 years," replied the journalist.
Oldham is scheduled to come to Israel at the end of the month for three performances, at the invitation of the Tel Aviv club Patiphone. The club managers have been trying to bring him to Israel for a long time. Oldham finally accepted after David Berman, the soloist of "Silver Jews," which played at Patiphone last summer, described the small Tel Aviv club enthusiastically. There, the cramped space lets one feel the real love for rock music.
Oldham will be appearing in Israel under the stage name he has been using for a few years - Bonnie Prince Billy. This name was preceded by other pseudonyms: Palace, Palace Brothers and Palace Songs.
"It's part of this whole battle between me and what people expect of me," Oldham told The Guardian. "People are looking for fame or a focus, and I can't provide that. I'm not the singer of these songs. I can become [Bonnie Prince Billy] as I step on a stage. He sings the songs."
When asked if Billy also writes the songs, Oldham replied, "'We write them together."
Oldham, 36, started out as a film actor, and played the lead in John Sayles' "Matewan." His acting career, however, led to a deep personal crisis, and he recovered through his music. He still occasionally appears in films.
Oldham's first albums were recorded on pitifully low budgets - the most expensive one cost $3,000 - but they captured the hearts of alternative folk and rock lovers with their strange beauty. Oldham acquired fans with his open, ego-free singing, and his combination of the dark and wintry with optimism and faith. It is hard to explain why, but Oldham's songs contain something that makes listeners believe them right from the start. His fans include P.J. Harvey, Nick Cave and Johnny Cash, who even recorded one of Oldham's songs.
Oldham's music is usually classified as alternative country, although he disagrees somewhat with that definition.
"Too much emphasis is put on American roots music when people try and place me," Oldham told The Guardian. "I grew up listening to punk: Husker Du, Dinosaur Junior. I'm steeped in a lot of stuff. Led Zeppelin as much as [Blues singer] Bukka White. Miles Davis as much as [country singer] Merle Haggard. People say, 'Oh, it's the South, it's Louisville,' but I've not lived here very much in the past 15 years. I'm a nomad. I've lived in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Baltimore. I'm a city kid. I'm not a hick."
Despite his reservations, however, it is easy to see why the hick image has stuck. His songs are full of cabins, dinghies and snow-covered expanses, and sound distinctly like the descendents of American folk songs, or even ancient Celtic songs. His latest album, the beautiful "The Letting Go," was recorded in Iceland, and it too contains a strong natural presence, mainly snow. The second prominent image in his songs is human lips - his heroes spend a lot of time kissing.
Oldham will come to Israel accompanied by a band of four musicians, including the excellent guitarist Emmett Kelley. The first concert will be on January 31, at the Mayumana House in Jaffa, opened by guitarist Yonatan Gat. The other two shows, at the Patiphone, with Oldham and his band, will be on February 2 and 3, with two of the club's house bands opening - "Monotonix" and "Lebanon."
What luck
Like the performances by Will Oldham, Gordon Graham's visit to Israel this weekend is also the result of a grassroots initiative. It was the brainchild of Aviv Gefen, who liked Graham's band Lucky Jim. Gefen contacted Graham through the Web site MySpace and asked if he'd like to perform with him in Israel.
"He logged onto my MySpace page, listened to music by Blackfield (The English-language band in which Gefen sings with Steven Wilson - B.S.), and a minute later sent me an e-mail saying he would be delighted to come," says Gefen.
Graham, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, wandered the world for years, trying to make a name for himself, and even after some cooperative efforts with artists like Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright, he remained an unknown. A meeting with English producer Ben Townsend led to Lucky Jim, which released its first album in 2004 and garnered enthusiastic reviews. Recently the pair released a second, equally excellent album, "All the Kings Horses."
There is nothing new in Lucky Jim's music: It draws inspiration from Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Cat Stevens, Leonard Cohen and many others. Since Graham is a gifted songwriter, however, the fact that he is clearly influenced by the 1960s and '70s giants does not detract from his powerful creativity.
"What enchanted me about his music was the songs, which are really good," says Gefen. Graham will be a guest at two of Gefen's concerts at Zappa in Tel Aviv. The first is 2 P.M. tomorrow and the second is at midnight Saturday. Graham is scheduled to sing four or five solos and perform a couple of songs with Gefen. Hopefully, one of them will be "Dear Brother," an emotional song from Lucky Jim's new album and an ode to novelist Tristan Egolf, a friend of Graham's who committed suicide.