Will Oldham — The Man With Many Faces
Many monikers, varied music, one vision
Will Oldham, who are we really talking about? During his ongoing music career, this man from Louisville, Kentucky (who still calls this city his home), has presented his music through a number of names, or should we call them aliases?
Probably both. He did record briefly under his own name, and that was not in the beginning, but, as Palace (in three or four variations of that name), and for a while now as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, through quite a few albums, EPs and singles, as well as almost countless collaborations, covering a musical ground that goes from folk to psych to electronic and what not else.
All, above, are reasons for many to dub him ‘a true musical chameleon.’ But is he really? Or, should we just exclude the term musical here? After all, he is (or was, or still is?) an actor, a poet, a photographer (as was his father), a producer… you can probably add a few other things in there that we may not even know about. Or, maybe Oldham doesn’t deserve to be called a chameleon, perhaps he’s just somebody who needs a few facets to express his art. And what he does undoubtedly needs to be called art.
It All Started with Acting
Oldham was actually an actor first. He was not yet out of his teens when he starred in John…
