Bonnie “Prince” Billy made a proper country album, or at least a proper Nashville album. Kentucky’s favorite son Will Oldham traveled to Music City to make the forthcoming The Purple Bird with producer David “Ferg” Ferguson and an ensemble of A-list session musicians. Notably, it’s coming out on the quietly amazing No Quarter Records, not Oldham’s longtime label home Drag City. Domino will release it in the UK and EU.

Oldham first met Ferg two decades ago while working on Johnny Cash’s American III, the one where Cash covered “I See A Darkness.” He’s been a longtime friend and collaborator; when I spoke to Oldham and Matt Sweeney about Superwolves, his name came up. For The Purple Bird — named after a drawing Ferg made as a child, which adorns the album cover — the Nashville veteran wrote songs with Oldham and worked as a creative equal.

A statement from Oldham:

I’ve made records with friends, collaborative records like The Brave and the Bold with Tortoise; the two Superwolf records with Matt Sweeney; The Wonder Show of the World with Emmett Kelly; Get on Jolly with Mick Turner. These collaborators get top billing because that’s how this business works. This record, The Purple Bird, is similarly a collaborative effort but the collaborator is the producer, David Ferguson. He’s a giant of a man, an epic musical force, a dear friend. Our work together on this record was the result of years of sharing hard times and great joys, songs and stories, of making music together and apart. There’s a lot of trust in this record on Ferg’s part and on mine, and the trust was hard- and well-earned. When I listen to the record, oftentimes I can’t help but laugh in wonder that life allowed me to participate in such a thing.

Ferg reportedly told Oldham, “I don’t wanna do a country record, just do your shit, Will.” But lead single “Our Home” sounds pretty dang country to me. It finds Oldham duetting with Grammy-winning mandolinist Tim O’Brien, who cowrote the track. Watch the video below.

Last month No Quarter also released Oldham’s unmastered experimental album High And High And Mighty, which you can stream below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Turned To Dust (Rolling On)”
02 “London May”
03 “Tonight With The Dogs I’m Sleeping”
04 “Boise, Idaho”
05 “The Water’s Fine”
06 “Sometimes It’s Hard To Breathe”
07 “New Water”
08 “Guns Are For Cowards”
09 “Downstream”
10 “One of These Days (I’m Gonna Spend The Whole Night With You)”
11 “Is My Living In Vain?”
12 “Our Home”

The Purple Bird is out 1/31 via No Quarter/Domino. Pre-order it here.