We Are Together Again

On his 2025 album, The Purple Bird, Louisville-based singer/songwriter Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy) embraced Nashville country, with a mixture of traditional Music City instrumentation and twangy, clever songs could have that fit any era. The album was recorded in Nashville with producer David Ferguson and a team of talented players, giving it the packed instrumentation and lively feel of any number of country classics. Oldham takes a completely different path on We Are Together Again, turning the page on the Nashville sound and returning to the hushed, patient trappings of many of his earlier albums. Some of the songs here were written at the same time as The Purple Bird, but are approached very differently. On album highlights like “Life Is Scary Horses,” Oldham’s bare, unaffected voice is in the forefront, surrounded by gentle acoustic instruments, backing vocalists, and gorgeous string arrangements. There’s technically as much going on with the arrangements here as on the rollicking country fun of The Purple Bird, but the sound is much more understated. On “They Keep Trying to Find You,” one of the album’s most stripped-down songs, the spare atmosphere allows for haunting lyrics of isolation to make a deeper impact. While We Are Together Again largely lacks drums (with the exception of the timekeeping snare on the mariachi-flavored “Vietnam Sunshine”), the more spacious landscapes fill up quietly with interesting textures and sounds not often found on the average indie folk album. Flutters of electronics, synthesizers, and even noisy computer-born glitchy sounds come in and out of the production picture, mixing with gentle harp and ghostly backing vocals from Erin Hill on the cerebral narrative tune “Davey Dead.” Thomas Deakin contributes subtle touches of accordion, tuba, cornet, clarinet and more, and there are flashes of Moog synth and bouzouki on various songs, but the album still registers as an unfussy set of quiet folk tunes built around Oldham’s one-of-a-kind voice. It’s a fantastic turn-of-heel from the sometimes uproarious barroom dust-ups of The Purple Bird, but We Are Together Again ultimately takes its place as another beautiful entry in Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s everchanging, ever-engrossing discography. ~ Fred Thomas