Who knows where Will Oldham will turn up next… The latest recording from Bonnie “Prince” Billy comes courtesy of “The Natural State,” a news piece aired on radio stations over the weekend about “a swarm of mysterious earthquakes beginning last fall along an ancient and heretofore unknown fault” in Faulkner County, Arkansas. Some believe the quakes were catalyzed by thousands of natural gas wells having been hydro-fractured, or “fracked,” in the area since 2005. Oldham worked closely with producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister on this episode of “Song + Story,” penning “Mother Nature Kneels,” a somber acoustic ballad intertwined with the sound byte-driven report, in which Oldham Bonnie-fies the story with lines like, “Earth makes me tremble and I return the favor.” You can hear the story/song here or below and download “Mother Nature Kneels” thataway.
“Mother Nature Kneels”