Lush country fundamentals are toyed with on The Purple Bird, a band backed not just by the raw creativity of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, but producer David Ferguson, who has worked with Johnny Cash. Billy is backed by what he calls the “best band in Nashville,” and after listening to The Purple Bird, it is difficult to disagree with him. Let those gentle tones soar like that bird on the front cover. Heartfelt, religiously or spiritually oriented deep dives into the soul. A roar for us all to get along whatever the cost bleeds into the opening track, Turned to Dust rather well. A message like “get along with one another,” when spoken with the wrong conviction, rubs a listener the wrong way. But The Purple Bird is open, is honest, with how it would apply these rules of thumb to the world. No perfect route, but the road still bends.
Turned to Dust, like all the songs on The Purple Bird, features such a tremendous and unbreakable heart. There is comfort in the end, that turn into dust or the inevitability of fallout further down the line. Accept it as one of the many left hooks life may throw, and react accordingly. With Billy leading this charge, there is a security to The Purple Bird which comes from familiarity, and yet there are wonderful changes within, constant pushes of a sound which has been relied on from generation to generation. Slower percussion and some tremendous piano work on London May do well to keep the fire burning for The Purple Bird, an album which has no problem in finding its feet in a rapidly changing world. Stare down the barrel enough and it becomes another part of the day, as Billy finds on songs understanding the process of death, of the passing of time. Why not lose yourself in some other land? Why do the things you do not want to do? Billy makes an argument for treating yourself as the only objective, the one that matters.
Crucial to all these heavy matters are lighter, trail song experiences. The modern world is fitted into the 1960s aesthetic with a song like Tonight With the Dogs I’m Sleeping. Laments of being on the road so long are found in its follow-up, Boise, Idaho. A track which details those long days and nights of travel, and there being no desire to return from where you once came, be it birthplace or prior place of living. In country as a genre, we can find a widely relatable, no-nonsense way of understanding the world and incorporating the messages from The Purple Bird is a sincere thrill, as is the bountiful instrumental joys. Fundamental contemporary folk offerings can be found all the way through, with optimism bursting from The Water’s Fine, where the traditional tones and instrumental sway are adapted to a moment of reflection in the modern world.
Intimacy and reassurance from brass pops and broad instrumental range come through The Purple Bird time and again. New Water finds it well, hand olds onto the hopes of a coy optimism. Swaggering ballads like Guns Are for Cowards bring an exceptional depth to The Purple Bird, which had plenty to begin with but adds another layer with a slowed acoustic moment on the John Anderson-featuring Downstream. Tales of water-adjacent moments, the use of those flowing rivers washing over the old ground, making the way to something new, are delicately placed throughout. A subtle addition to make, but well-kept and maintained the whole way through The Purple Bird, an admirable piece of work with some lush instrumentals.
