Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – What the Brothers Sang

Album Review by Chris Buckle | 31 Jan 2013
Album title: What the Brothers Sang
Artist: Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Label: Domino
Release date: 18 Feb

Last year, Dawn McCarthy and Will Oldham channelled their mutual passion for The Everly Brothers into a festive 7” containing a brace of cover versions, fronted by forlorn favourite Christmas Eve Can Kill You. Two months on, a full-length tribute arrives in the form of What the Brothers Sang, in which the duo understatedly refashion thirteen more tracks written or previously performed by the Everlys.

As before, McCarthy and Oldham evidence utmost respect for the material, recognising and keeping sight of what made these songs tick in the first place. There are no radical reworkings here, but rather well-considered reflections of the brothers’ key hallmarks, with vocal harmonies decorously forefront throughout, and a suitably old-fashioned aesthetic prevailing thanks to a dream line-up of consummate old-hand session players. Though marginal in relation to its creators’ larger bodies of work (Oldham’s ample discography especially), the results offer vintage pleasures too handsome to pass by.

http://www.bonnieprincebilly.com