Track Listing

1. I Came to Hear the Music
2. I've Seen It All
3. Am I Demon?
4. My Life
5. I'm Loving the Street
6. Way I Am
7. Cycles
8. World's Greatest

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47453 in Music
• Released on: 2007-11-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: EP

Album Description
Following the many intensities of The Letting Go and its three singles and EP, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy went to Philadelphia to cool out with a record of covers versions. But the combination of summer days, Philadelphia streets and the way Bonny is ambushed the cooling process, producing eight sizzlers instead and creating the need to Ask Forgiveness. Redolent of the haze hovering o’er the city of brotherly love, Ask Forgiveness was recorded on the fly at Hexham Head. With a basic alignment of Bonny and Meg Baird on acoustics and vocals and Greg Weeks on electric guitar, aided and abetted by Maggie Wienk on cello at times, the colors begin shifting and flashing right away, with acoustics glinting and a bit of electric guitar tone, running clean to resonant to Leslie and back; a light touch on the faders bringing vocals and guitars to and fro in perfect time. Covering a handful of diverse songwriters (Newbury, Guðmundsdóttir, Anzalone, Ochs, Billy, Haggard, Caldwell and Kelly), Bonny makes each one of their songs his own simply, through the process of having taken it within and loving it - and then singing it out again, in good company.

Amazon.com
This is a mini-album with seven covers and one original tune by Will Oldham (a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy). Cover records by alt-rock types are often a risky venture, whether they reveal shortcomings in a young artist or come filled with ironic, cheeky takes on old standards. Of course, Oldham has covered a judicious amount of seemingly incongruous songs over the years, including Mariah Carey on this year's (largely throwaway) Guilt By Association compilation and fare as diverse as AC/DC, Bob Marley, and even a number from "Evita." Ask Forgiveness—where Oldham covers Björk, Danzig, Thom Yorke, Phil Ochs, and (most spectacularly) R. Kelly—ranks among that slim collection of covers albums worth owning. It probably helps that this doesn't sound like alt-rock; The songs are sung in Oldham's usual soft-spoken, troubadour acoustic mode, and they thankfully feature lovely female backing vocals throughout. Clearly, he is very interested in these songs, and he mines their narrative and emotional core to truly make the material his own. His delivery is irony-free, compelling and strikingly straightforward (if quavery-throated). Huzzah! Now, no one else needs to make another record like this for another dozen years. Right? --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews

keep on coming
When Will Oldham puts out a full album it is almost always a masterpiece. His last several were brilliant, "Letting Go", "Master And Everyone", "Ease Down The Road", "I See A Darkness", just one great album after another. In between albums he puts out a lot of "projects". With the exception of his collaboration with Matt Sweeney, "Superwolf", none of these projects are as great as his fully conceived albums, but all of them are still good, still worthwhile. This album is not quite as diverse and interesting as the collection of covers Oldham did with Tortoise a few years ago, but it is a bit more accessible and certainly has some sublime moments. This new set of covers has a couple of numbers that will take you away. R. Kelly's tune, "World's Greatest" is mostly empty posturing in the hands of Kelly, but Oldham somehow imbues the song with an everyman quality that inverts the cockiness of the song by making "greatness" seem attainable to everyone. Danzig's "Am I Demon?" further explores a long running conceit for Oldham, that of embracing the darkness within. Phil Ochs comes back alive with Oldham's melodic and sincere take on Och's intimate song "My Life". Like Dylan, BPB is not afraid of putting one of his own great songs in an obscure place and the one original here "Loving The Street" is an upbeat laid back feel-good Oldham cut that would, in turn, make a great cover song for someone else. It's always a bit of a surprise when Oldham isn't brilliant and a few songs here feel like retread oldham. But nonetheless, the big moments make this compilation worthwhile to own, and the overall listening experience is smooth and subtle, everything fitting together like a worn in puzzle.

Ignore the odd 1 star reviews - Will Oldham continues to weave gold out of his strawy beard
Will's back - if I See A Darkness or Superwolf are in your record collection, get this album. Then again, you were already planning on it, right? Closer to his collaboration with Tortoise (The Brave and the Bold) this is a collection of mostly-covers - so fragile and delicate and fargone from the source material as to make it all his own.

Achingly beautiful stuff from the hush-voiced master.

Bonnie King of Covers
A few years back Will Oldham recorded an EP of cover songs as Bonny Billy called "More Revery", which I love. Based on his performance on that EP, which was rockin', I purchased "Ask Forgiveness" as soon as I heard about it and have not been disappointed. Oldham's gentle style here is much like his last few albums. However, as I found Dawn McCarthy's back vocals on "The Letting Go" to be distracting I have been itching for some "new" Oldham to listen to. "World's Greatest" is this EP's gem; Oldham takes words that are gaudy and boastful and makes them humble and endearing. Heartily recommended.