Bonnie Prince Billy / Beware

Drag City

Breaking through the dirt and shooting upward into our atmosphere is a new variety of exotic BONNIE PRINCE BILLY plant. Stronger. Stinkier. It blooms in low light and cold but thrives in the sun as well, showing enticing spots and eating small creatures as they wander into its jaws. Though Beware shares spit with its immediate predecessor, Lie Down in the Light, its reach is longer, its arches more grandiose. Where fiddle and steel contribute their rustic timbre alongside guitars and voices, a thickening thud of low tone rolls beneath, giving the record a bottom that’s fun to watch bounce in new clothes. This intensifies the air and heralds Beware as Bonnie most ambidextrous record to date—even more so than The Letting Go. A listen or two through and you too may conclude that this could also be the great Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy contempo-country record—though, as always, the ‘Prince’ goes his own special way, even when climbing the charts with brawny arms and classic titles like “I Don’t Belong to Anyone,” “You Can’t Hurt Me Now,” and “I Am Goodbye.”  (STREET DATE - 3/17/2009)  

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