Welcome Back Billy

I've been loading albums into I-tunes in anticipation of the arrival of my shiny new ipod mini. It's silver. Emmet informs me that I am "a girls blouse" for owning a mini. But I couldn't resist the new mini. It has a better battery life (18 hours vs 8) and was 20% less. I'm realizing that the 4GB size is going to suit me just fine. I have more music than that, but I'm a skipper. I rarely listen to an entire album. So I guess I just pick playlists with songs that I'll actually want to hear.

The great part about loading songs into itunes is that you have reason and access to listen to songs/groups/artists you've been ignoring. No greater casualty than Will Oldham. Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Palace, Palace Brothers, or Palace Music) is a genious. No qualifications to that statement and none needed. The man is brilliant. He makes music that is earthy and scary and funny and sexy.

I see a darkness is probably the best of his albums. The title track was covered by Johnny Cash on his American Man series. Though, I've listened to ISAD upwards of 500 times all the way through, none of those sessions has been in the past 10 months. I've been on an unintentional Billy boycott. But today was different. I loaded ISAD into my itunes and gave the old standby a spin. The lyrics that caught my ear for what must be the 1,000th time came from the title track :

Well I hope that someday buddy
We'll have peace in our lives
Together or apart
Alone or with our wives
And we can stop our whoring
And pull the smiles inside
And light it up forever
And never go to sleep
My best unbeaten brother
That isn't all I see
Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness (x4)
Did you know how much I love you
Is a hope that some how
you you can save me from this darkness