All good things come to an end.  I lay before you those who will be tribute.  In closing, I present to you The Songs of Will Oldham – A Slowcoustic Cover Project, Day Five.

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Fred Woods came out of nowhere for me late last year – you could say he emerged from the woods, I mean you could if you enjoyed terrible puns.  That last sentence aside, Fred Woods creates music that has such gravitas that it is almost unnerving.  Each song is like atmosphere and emotion mixed together, with his cover of Strange Form of Life it is no different.  The layering sounds amazing in headphones…a must listen in headphones.  Fred had the below to say about the song and Oldham in general:

I really started to get into Bonnie Prince with The Letting Go…
To me almost everything he made before that is not really my cup of tea. I don’t know what happened in 2004-2005, maybe because he met Björk or something, but his voice really improved. It was much deeper and more expressive in a way…
I’ve decided to cover Strange Form Of Life because it’s a masterpiece, as simple as that.
The words are so good that it made me reevalutate every songs I’ve written for my next record. Like Neil Young or Robert Wyatt, Bonnie is a creature of his own and one of my idols.

You could also pick up his last album Documenta as a high recommendation as well by clicking one of the links below.

Visit Fred Woods: Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter

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The Olympic Symphonium is an brings us No More Workhorse Blues direct from the East Coast of Canada all the way West to Calgary to assist in closing out this cover project.  The band actually just released a new album this week (see here) and among the hectic new album release craze, are still able to get us a fantastic cover track.  Described by Forward Music Group as “Crafting delicately arranged folk-pop that drips with bittersweet melodies, soaring harmonies, and an awful lot of passion…” – something I would whole-heartily agree with!

Visit The Olympic Symphonium: Forward Music Group | Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter

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Jeremy Squires provides his electro-acoustic, almost alt country-ish cover of I Am Goodbye to assist in the close today.  Jeremy provides a first for the cover projects here at Slowcoustic as he has another contributor (Doc Feldman) on the track playing some accompaniment.  Two in one here, and it works flawlessly (as with most everything Jeremy & Doc do).  Jeremy almost covered two songs for us this time, but in the end all energies went to I Am Goodbye and it really shows with the delicately picked tunes with what I assume is Doc’s pedal steel peeking through (only a guess on my part).

Visit Jeremy Squires: Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter

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Jack James finds himself with the only track that received double duty in I See A Darkness.  James’ brings a more traditional, possibly darker or even a gritty texture to it.  Jack had a bit on his decision to cover this particular song:

Will Oldham is an honest to god artist. It seems like it’s becoming harder to name musicians for which this still holds true. I continue to admire not only his music, but how he conducts himself, and his attitude of dealing with the industry and his fans. To this day he manages to cultivate a mystique and respect granted perhaps only to the likes of Tom Waits, and few others. I honestly don’t know how he does it, but he sure is one strangely interesting person.

 

It is with the burden of all that that I decided: since covering a Will Oldham song comes with so much weight and pressure anyway, why not just pick what is probably his best known song? A song that has also been covered by Johnny Cash no less. In for a penny, in for a pound…

 

After initially choosing the immense “New Partner”, I instead decided to grab for “I See a Darkness”.

Glad he did select this track, job well done sir.

Visit Jack James: Website/Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter

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This one came out of nowhere from a die hard Will Oldham fan in the form of The Dones.  Ryan reached out after seeing the cover project actually start this week and had to be part of it and here we are.  I thought he had a great quote to literally finish the cover project, so I will in fact end with it.

…as far as descriptive words. well, geez, what does one say.
i’ll simply say that “if i don’t like a song Oldham’s released, i’ve simply not listened to it enough times yet.”

Visit The Dones: Website (free album with more Will Oldham cover action) | Soundcloud | MySpace!!

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There you have it.  Tell yer friends, tell nobody, just listen to it and enjoy all that Will Oldham has brought to us through song.  Thanks to all the musicians who have contributed over the past 5 days, 25 songs being the largest cover project yet!  Till next time.

~Sandy