I saw Bonnie Prince Billy play a couple weeks ago and he mentioned in between songs that the Mekons were one of his favorite artists.
This surprised me. I like the Mekons, but have always considered them to be a band that was ok, but not great. Made some good punk songs, kept playing for decades even though it seemed like nobody was paying much attention. They started as a punk band in the late 70’s in Leeds - same artsy social circle as Gang of Four and the Delta 5. Somewhere along the line they branched out and some of them moved to the US and started the Waco Brothers - a countryish band, and also a crapload of side projects of some blend of country/folk and punk rock. In general I’ve always thought the side projects were just fine. Like good background music but not something I’d seek out.
Then I found out that Horses from Bonnie Prince Billy’s first band - Palace music was one of these side project songs. The original was put out by two of the long-time Mekons members. It’s not a song that catches my ear, but Bonnie Prince Billy manages to turn it into something different.
Then there’s Just to See You Smile. Bonnie Prince Billy put this out on an album of covers. It’s a Tim Mcgraw song, and is IMO a bland country-pop song in it’s original form.
In short, Bonnie Prince Billy has an amazing ability to find really good song-writing buried underneath bland execution, and reshape it into something pretty beautiful. Tons more examples, but these are the first two to jump out to me. Link related.
Bonnie Prince Billy is a little all over the map. I hesitate to call him a country artist, but more a guy who plays country music sometimes. Started out in the 90s doing moody lofi indi rock with a country twang, which probably comes naturally since he’s from Kentucky.
Worth listening to the album Viva Last Blues by Palace Music, which is the best of his lofi era, and then Greatest Palace Music is rerecordings of his Palace era songs with a more traditional backing band. Favorite songs include New Partner and Ohio River Boat Song.
He hit his peak popularity around the late 2000’s with I See a Darkness (which Johnny Cash covered) and A Minor Place.
In the 2010s he started doing a ton of collaborations and oddball one-offs and singles. Seems like he started playing whatever he wanted instead of trying to build a career. Got wierd. Good example is when he made an album with the Trembling Bells, a Scottish psych band and did a version of Riding, which is one of his own songs. Super dark country/folk song redone by a very orchestral Scottish psych band. I won’t say you’ll like it but it’s worth a listen.