at a glance...

Hometown: Louisville, KY
Year Formed: 1992

Members:
Will Oldham sings and plays acoustic guitar - a variety of musicians back him from track to track

Bands in the family :
High Llamas, Royal Trux

Perhaps in the final assessment of Will Oldham's artistic career, his acting skill will eclipse his talent as a songwriter, for his leading role as the troubled troubador of the everchanging Palace ensemble may be his finest performance. The anachronistic personae he assumes from song to song through sere, wearied vocals, bestow an air of gravity and sublime resonance to themes that would otherwise come across as lifelessly hackneyed.

Some may find Oldham's old world affectations annoyingly pretentious, but they breathe necessary life into the abject, mythic characters of "Trudy Dies" and "Valentine's Day." On "Riding," he chronicles, like a dust bowl Tiresias, the incestuous affair of two young siblings, who are encouraged, disturbingly enough, by their bedraggled old father. Sung in parched whispers and sighs and set against a barren landscape, it's a surpassingly tragic tale that's as bleak and unsparing as a Yeatsian one-act.

Nearly all of Lost Blues..., a compilation of previously released material and uncovered rarities, is haunting, emotionally naked material. It isn't easy or delightful listening, but it's some of Oldham's most powerful work.