Album Review: Best Troubador, Bonnie Prince Billy

When Merle Haggard died on April 6, 2016, on his 79th birthday, it almost meant the end of this album. Will Oldham had long-planned a tribute to his hero – but with the hoary old singer gone to the Grand Ole Opry in the sky, some of the impetus was lost and the idea of recording in Nashville was dropped. Thankfully, Oldham resurrected the project, roping in a tremendous band in the process, including saxophonist Drew Miller, Cheyenne Mize on fiddle, Chris Rodahaffer on guitar and banjo and Dundalk’s Nuala Kennedy on vocals and flute – Kennedy has collaborated with Oldham on-and-off since 2008.

Merle Haggard ruled the American country charts for two decades, with 38 country No.1s from 1966 to 1987, but if you’re looking for the hits, look elsewhere: only two chart-toppers are included, ‘The Fugitive’ and ‘That’s The Way Love Goes’, for which Haggard won a Grammy in 1984. Elsewhere, Oldham cherry-picks his own favourites, mostly album tracks and lesser known Merle gems like the wonderfully self-deprecating ‘Haggard (Like I’ve Never Been Before)’ or the moving ‘Roses In The Winter’, complete with Nuala Kennedy’s aching fiddle. Kennedy’s husband, Appalachian singer AJ Roach, takes lead vocals on the fabulously drunken waltz ‘The Day The Rains Came Down’, a song about making whoopee when it’s too wet to do much else.

These are real country songs, devoid of the saccharine beloved of modern Nashville, but still drenched in pathos – notably, the magical, tender ‘I Always Get Lucky With You’, the yearning duet of ‘Some of Us Fly’ from 2005’s Chicago Wind, and the title track of 2010’s I Am What I Am, where the singer finally sounded comfortable in his own skin. There’s plenty of doomed romances, boozy ruminations and hard living, as these songs, whether penned by Merle himself or tunes he made his own, are rooted in reality. Haggard had his demons. He lived through five marriages, several spells in prison and addiction issues. Oldham’s world-weary warble does them justice. A fitting tribute to a true great.

7/10

Out now