Things have been quiet from A.A. Bondy following the release of his 2011 LP, Believers, but here’s at least one promising sign the Alabama songwriter might have a follow-up in the works. His take on “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier” is featured on a new collection of Civil War-era songs curated by Randall Poster, the man behind 2011’s Buddy Holly tribute album, the Moonrise Kingdom soundtrack, and many other music supervising projects of note. Titled Divided & United, the 32-track set includes a number of artists we’ve posted about over the years, such as Sam Amidon (“Wildwood Flower”) and Loretta Lynn (“Take Your Gun and Go, John”), both of whom recorded straightforward, pared-down renditions with reverence to tradition. Bondy’s approach is more evocative, though, and more appropriately haunting, complete with a heartbeat sample that pulses alone for a full minute in the coda, pushing the lament’s foreboding theme even further into the foreground. Check it out above.
