Bonny Light Horseman – Rolling Golden Holy [LP]

Bonny Light Horsemans self-titled debut was a folkmasterclass, reimagining centuries-old standards witheffortless grace and wonder. Those Grammy-nominated, list-topping recordings not only suggested renewed possibilitiesfor aging songbooks but also marked the arrival of a triofully capable of reorienting the wider folk landscape. Still, ifit felt at all like the work of some short-lived supergroup or aone-off diversion (it never was),Rolling Golden Holyrebuffs the notion withpreternatural beauty andcharm, andimagination.These songs, all originals, follow the paths ofthe traditional tunes the band cherishes to new frontiers, thesounds and situations of history given the gravity and shapeof now. This is a band working at the edge of modern folk.

After the release of their debut, Anas Mitchell, JoshKaufman, and Eric D. Johnson began discussing their nextsteps, loosely planning on writing and recording stints. Thosesessions were delayed for all the unpredictable but now-familiar reasons until the Spring of 2021, when the trioreconvened with their families in tow in upstate New York.Their chemistry remained intact. Johnsons wife Annie hadlistened to him work with dozens of collaborators over thedecades, but, listening in from one room over, she noted hednever seemed so at ease and productive as he was withKaufman and Mitchell in Woodstock. They were perfectingCalifornia, a timely and incorruptible classic about movingon in search of something else, something more. These sessions were a series of yes,and encounters, each oneencouraging the others to take an idea and run with it furtherto the new safety net theyve built together, for one another.

These songs continually suggest and embody an unspokencontinuum between traditional and modern folk. Mitchellfinds self-sustaining adoration in steamy backseats, nighttimevisions, and seasonal storms during Summer Dream,crisscrossing generational symbols to tie past, present, andfuture into a Gordian knot of devotion. Johnson reaches backto 19th-century wartime on Someone to Weep for Me toempathize with someone else descended from a long line ofnobodies, just trying to live long enough to feel like hesmattered to anyone at all, a notion that knows neither age norborder. Johnson and Mitchell trade lineson Exile, theirluminous response to another of humanitys eternalconundrumshow to revel in relationships that we knowwill one day leave us lonely. Love and loss, death and fear:the songs may be different, but the emotional sources remain.

Tracklist:

1. Exile
2. Comrade Sweetheart
3. California
4. Summer Dream
5. Gone by Fall
6. Sweetbread
7. Someone to Weep for Me
8. Fleur de Lis
9. Fair Annie
10. Cold Rain and Snow

UPC: 617308025767
Label: 37d03d
Release Date: 10.7.22
Format: Vinyl