Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Nathan Salsburg & Tyler Trotter: Hear The Children Sing The Evidence

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (a.k.a. Will Oldham) is no stranger to reimagining work of the greats.

Alongside Chicago post-rock legend, Tortoise, their collaboration spawned the 2006 release, The Brave and the Bold: 10 covers which included the likes of Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road, Elton John’s Daniel, and Richard Thompson’s Calvary Cross.

The release also saw Oldham tackle Lungfish’s Love Is Love, and two decades later alongside fellow Louisville, Kentucky veterans, Nathan Salsburg and Tyler Trotter, he revisits Daniel Higgs’ poetic majesty by reimagining two of the cult band’s songs, Hear the Children Sing and The Evidence.

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Like the songs from The Brave and the Bold, Oldham’s distinct, creamy purr takes you to completely different places. Aside from Emil Amos’ Holy Sons vessel, perhaps there is no better exponent in modern day songwriting who can seemingly make the songs of others feel like their own. Such as the ease and unforced nature of Oldham’s performance, he breathes new life into these songs, and alongside Salsburg and Trotter, there’s also a slight nod to the post-hardcore underground that enveloped their native Louisville throughout the ’90s.

The idea to cover these songs stemmed from Salsburg, who would sing to his daughter, Talya, when she was a baby. One of the songs was The Evidence (taken from Lungfish’s 1994 release, Pass and Stow), and having learnt the guitar parts during his formative years, by this point Salsburg could play with one hand singing, while holding his daughter in his other arm.

The idea of extending the track evolved, and by drafting in Oldham and Trotter, the trio go hard in the long-form, taking The Evidence and Hear the Children Sing well beyond their former guises. Higgs’ lyrics, beautifully abstract and razor-sharp, and with these reimagined versions, perhaps even he wouldn’t have predicted the end results.

Fresh off the All Gist collaboration album alongside James Elkington, Salsburg trades in his intricate finger-picking to be immersed in the space afforded by Oldham’s stirring melodies and Trotter’s ambient synths. While the guitarist perhaps ventures from his natural habitat, Trotter also shifts the needle from his current endeavours as part of the post-rock trio Watter and as a touring member of Om, striking hot between the lines of minimalism.

Recorded at Jim Marlowe’s studio and featuring former member of Grails and Trotter’s Watter bandmate Zak Riles on banjo, Hear the Children Sing sees the ensemble in free mode. The unintrusive nature of Salsburg’s sparse guitars and Trotter’s sonic noodling is very less is more, maximising the space for Oldham to shape the song as he pleases. Even with the song’s definitive line, “Oh the devil is a flower / Plucked from a cloud”, it evolves like recurring fever dream. Fittingly, it ends with Salsburg and Oldham’s children repeating the chorus, adding a beautiful homespun warmth to proceedings.

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Meanwhile, The Evidence was recorded by Riles at his own studio space (incidentally located down the road from where Oldham captured magic in a bottle with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s I See A Darkness). Also including electric guitar from his brother Ned, alongside Salsburg, their guitars ring out, radiating a warmth that alternates between the comfort blanket and the campfire. Oldham’s soothing vocals, carried by Salsburg’s finely crafted riffs and Trotter’s spatial synths in something that takes alt-country to new places.

As Oldham sings the words, “If you’re outside the lingo /If you’re outside the jargon / You talk beyond a system / You’re talking out of turn”, it feels like the song unravels with new meaning. Almost like it was meant to be covered. Alongside Hear the Children Sing, the results are like a therapeutic trance-like gaze where your worries are evaporated. Even if it’s only for 40 minutes, it’s a rather nice feeling.

Hear The Children Sing The Evidence is out now via No Quarter Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.