Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy announces new live album ‘Ghosts of American Psychonauts’
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – the persona/stage-name of musician Will Oldham - will release a new live album titled Ghosts of American Psychonauts on September 18th. The 8-song set was recorded at The Pico Union Project in Los Angeles over Valentine’s Day weekend 2025, just a few weeks after the release of The Purple Bird – and features 3 songs from that album, re-arranged with new instrumentation – among highlights from the BPB catalog. You can hear the version of “London May” (featuring the man London May himself - formerly of Samhain - on drums) today:
The performance features Oldham’s touring partners Thomas Deakin (clarinet, down-tuned electric guitar) andJacob Duncan (flute, saxophone) and many additional guests, including the aforementioned May on drums, Emmett Kelly (bass), Ryder McNair (piano), DvDeVincentis (sax), Patrick Shiroishi (sax) and Dave Ferguson (who produced The Purple Bird and sings here on "Downstream").
Oldham says:
Everyone on the stage (on this record) knows how to tell stories, musically, and relies on this storytelling to create liveable real spaces. In February of 2025, in Los Angeles, we had stories to share with each other and we did it with a thorough and cathartic push-and-pull with each other, and with the audience.
The sound of the record doesn't make any sense, nor does its duration, by standard standards, and this allows the record to do what we want music to do which is to make its own sense.
Once you've been on the road for years it's undeniable that the road is also home, because that's where much of our friends and family are. The stage and the audience were full of friends and family, and music is where we meet.
Tracklisting:
1. Sometimes it’s Hard to Breathe
2. Shorty’s Ark
3. London May
4. Downstream
5. Strange Form of Life
6. This is Far From Over
7. Trees of Hell
8. I See a Darkness
The Bonnie web store where you’ll never know what will be put up for sale
After dancing with the big boys in Nashville for The Purple Bird, it was time to go back to Louisville, KY for some unfinished business. We’d had our wild and unpredicted quarantine year way back in 2020 (what a time, never over) and responded to it with Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, a record of determined intimacy that seized closeness and celebrated community. Oldham got to work, after Keeping Secrets, on something that would build upon lessons learned and little victories won in the writing and building of that record. But something flew in the way: a big beautiful exotic musical force in the person of David Ferguson who midwifed the experience that became the Purple Bird. Once the feathers had settled and the world toured, Oldham called Jim Marlowe, who runs End of an Ear, a recording haven less than ten minutes’ drive from Oldham’s house. Over a couple of months, a patchwork of sessions brought forth We Are Together Again, ten songs of “love and friendship and fiasco”, songs about togetherness.
We Are Together Again implies a return. The first LP of original songs that Oldham helped put into the world was the Palace Brothers’ There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You, back in 1993. That record was recorded in Kentucky, less than a quarter mile form the mighty Ohio River, and now, in Marlowe’s studio, we’re back in this riverside space, back home as it were, with family, friends, colleagues and heroes contributing.
Where KSWDY brought with it a determined joy, here on WATA we enter a more fearful space; anger and sadness lurk with their opponents gratitude and courage.
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