As a performer, songwriter and actor, Will Oldham has carved a singular path through the worlds of indie folk and cinema. Now the critically acclaimed, enigmatic artist presents his life’s work: the lyrics to more than two hundred songs spanning the 1980s to the present, each with annotations that impart new meaning to his music.Oldham’s aphoristic meditations—on death, patience and turning carelessness into a virtue—are, like his lyrics, profound, earthy and often funny. They reveal flashes of Oldham’s philosophy, the sources and circumstances that inspired his lyrics and the literary ambition of his songwriting. Separated from their aural form, Oldham’s lyrics become a new kind of poetry—candid, awkward and wise—with influences as diverse as Rabindranath Tagore and The Mekons.A book that will delight his longtime fans and inspire young songwriters, Songs of Love and Horror reveals an artist who has captured extraordinary poetry in music despite being "a stranger among my own language".

W - Sweeney called me and said that Johnny Cash just recorded "I See A Darkness." We had a Bowery Ballroom show a week or two later, and he invited Rick Rubin to come to the show; he came to the show ... and asked if I wanted to play piano on the song.A - Which you agreed to do despite not knowing how to play piano.W - Yes...A man who acts under the name Will Oldham and a singer songwriter who performs under the name Bonnie Prince Billy has, over the past quarter of a century, made an idiosyncratic journey through, and an indelible mark on, the worlds of indie rock and independent cinema, intersecting with such disparate figures as Johnny Cash, Bjork, James Earl Jones, and R. Kelly along the way. These conversations with longtime friend and associate Alan Licht probe his highly individualistic approach to music making and the music industry, one that cherishes notions of intimacy, community, mystery, and spontaneity.

W - Sweeney called me and said that Johnny Cash just recorded ' I See A Darkness.' We had a Bowery Ballroom show a week or two later, and he invited Rick Rubin to come to the show; he came to the show . . . and asked if I wanted to play piano on the song.A - Which you agreed to do despite not knowing how to play piano.W - Yes . . .A man who acts under the name Will Oldham and a singer-songwriter who performs under the name Bonnie Prince Billy has, over the past quarter of a century, made an idiosyncratic journey through, and an indelible mark on, the worlds of indie rock and independent cinema, intersecting with such disparate figures as Johnny Cash, Björk, James Earl Jones, and R. Kelly along the way. These conversations with longtime friend and associate Alan Licht probe his highly individualistic approach to music making and the music industry, one that cherishes notions of intimacy, community, mystery, and spontaneity.

As a performer, songwriter and actor, Will Oldham has carved a singular path through the worlds of indie folk and cinema. Now the critically acclaimed, enigmatic artist presents his life’s work: the lyrics to more than two hundred songs spanning the 1980s to the present, each with annotations that impart new meaning to his music.Oldham’s aphoristic meditations—on death, patience and turning carelessness into a virtue—are, like his lyrics, profound, earthy and often funny. They reveal flashes of Oldham’s philosophy, the sources and circumstances that inspired his lyrics and the literary ambition of his songwriting. Separated from their aural form, Oldham’s lyrics become a new kind of poetry—candid, awkward and wise—with influences as diverse as Rabindranath Tagore and The Mekons.A book that will delight his longtime fans and inspire young songwriters, Songs of Love and Horror reveals an artist who has captured extraordinary poetry in music despite being "a stranger among my own language".

W - Sweeney called me and said that Johnny Cash just recorded "I See A Darkness." We had a Bowery Ballroom show a week or two later, and he invited Rick Rubin to come to the show; he came to the show ... and asked if I wanted to play piano on the song.A - Which you agreed to do despite not knowing how to play piano.W - Yes...A man who acts under the name Will Oldham and a singer songwriter who performs under the name Bonnie Prince Billy has, over the past quarter of a century, made an idiosyncratic journey through, and an indelible mark on, the worlds of indie rock and independent cinema, intersecting with such disparate figures as Johnny Cash, Bjork, James Earl Jones, and R. Kelly along the way. These conversations with longtime friend and associate Alan Licht probe his highly individualistic approach to music making and the music industry, one that cherishes notions of intimacy, community, mystery, and spontaneity.

W - Sweeney called me and said that Johnny Cash just recorded ' I See A Darkness.' We had a Bowery Ballroom show a week or two later, and he invited Rick Rubin to come to the show; he came to the show . . . and asked if I wanted to play piano on the song.A - Which you agreed to do despite not knowing how to play piano.W - Yes . . .A man who acts under the name Will Oldham and a singer-songwriter who performs under the name Bonnie Prince Billy has, over the past quarter of a century, made an idiosyncratic journey through, and an indelible mark on, the worlds of indie rock and independent cinema, intersecting with such disparate figures as Johnny Cash, Björk, James Earl Jones, and R. Kelly along the way. These conversations with longtime friend and associate Alan Licht probe his highly individualistic approach to music making and the music industry, one that cherishes notions of intimacy, community, mystery, and spontaneity.