One of the more notable projects that sprung from the pandemic perils that dominated life for a long time from March 2020 is Blind Date Party by indie veterans BiIl Callahan and Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy). The concept is simple: to start, the duo sought out 19 songs from songwriters like
Cat Stevens,
Iggy Pop,
Hank Williams Jr. and
Billie Eilish - and certainly not the best known songs
… by these very different artists. Next, befriended musicians (mostly like themselves associated with the Drag City label) were assigned songs to record entirely as they saw fit. As a final step, Callahan and Oldham added their vocals. The result is a collection of over twenty idiosyncratic musicians that we hear from their quirkiest side. Stylistically, the songs range from freakfolk to country, to lo-fi synthpop. If there is one common denominator between the participants in this project, it is that they don't like to be pigeonholed. It results in interesting listening material that sounds surprisingly coherent despite the large extremes. (JV)more
