Beware

Labeling Will Oldham (“Prince” Billy himself) “eclectic” is a colossal understatement. While he’s primarily spent the better part of the last 20 years offering up his distinct take on Americana, he’s scarcely passed up the chance to detour: Whether acting in offbeat films, dancing on tractors for Kanye, mutating classics with Tortoise, rhapsodizing about Easy-E and R. Kelly, photographing iconic album covers, or issuing limited 7-inch records with metal bands, it’s clear that the man either has no idea how an indie folk-star is supposed  to act or is desperately doing his best to define the concept of such a thing for a post-genre, Wikipedia-sized world, high shorts and majestic beard in tow.

Remember the scene in The Blues Brothers when Elwood’s decided it’s a good idea to impersonate The Good Ol’ Boys...? How the barmaid says: “We’ve got both kinds of music here: Country AND Western!” Thing is, it’s a nice bit of detournement because instead of then sending up genres beloved of ignorant hicks, the band play the most menacing and the most loving songs in the entire film (the theme from Rawhide, and ‘Stand By Your Man’), proving that genres with tight constraints can still convey plenty of emotion, and that good comedy needn’t be about mockery.