Stream: 1995 Will Oldham and co. Album "Viva Last Blues" | Under the Radar Magazine Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
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Stream: 1995 Will Oldham and co. Album “Viva Last Blues”

Apr 16, 2018

There always seems to be another obscure and amazing Will Oldham recording surfacing. Today it came in the announcement on Drag City that Oldham’s 1995 material was now available to stream. One of the recordings is the Steve Albini produced Viva Last Blues, which finds Oldham in great company.

The beautiful and transporting album was recorded at Bates Brothers Recording in Hueytown, Alabama, near Birmingham where Oldham lived at the time. Here’s some background from Drag City: “The Bates’ ample supply of beautifully-maintained keyboards made inviting Liam Hayes to the session a no-brainer. Oldham spoke with Britt Walford about playing drums but eventually, Walford formally balked. Instead, Will was encouraged by brother Paul Oldham to ask Jason Loewenstein to come drum. Loewenstein (of Sparkalepsy and Sebadoh) was living in Louisville at the time. Ned Oldham played the bass. Bryan Rich played “lead guitar”; questions still get asked about where said guitar was leading. Oldham has said that Stevie Wonder’s Music Of My Mind and Cat StevensCatch Bull At Four were sonic influences, though such influence is hardly notable in the final product. Albini did some significant maintenance work on the 2” tape machines at the Bates studio in order to get things properly up and running. The record was titled Viva Last Blues, in partial tribute to the movies of Russ Meyer. The “last” aspect had to do with Oldham feeling like he was coming to the end of a certain trajectory of discovery.”