You might not recognize the band name Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, but you may recognize some of their former names. Singer/songwriter Will Oldham has produced work under Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Will Oldham, Palace, Palace Brothers and endless other pseudonyms in the past ten years.

For the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy project, this is the second full release. The ultra-folkie Oldham is a twisted genius, mixing soft musings of love with lyrics about oral sex, anal stimulation and suicide. After years of being unrecognized by much of the musical world, Oldham has ignited an indie revival in folk music and built an avid fan base.

Being a special guest on one of Oldham’ s records has become every hipster’s dream. Even berserk film director Harmony Korine makes an appearance on Oldham’ s latest work, for whatever that is worth. But, little seems to phase the persistent work of the weathered veteran Oldham, who at this point in his career has written music for over a dozen albums, including instrumental recordings.

For the low-fi giant Oldham, “Ease Down the Road” is a neatly produced album. Many of Oldham’s other records sound as though they were taken from four-track straight to record. The audio quality and album production sounds as though a little more care was given to the precision of the instruments.

Although Oldham’s aged voice and jagged songs are often more suited to a rougher recording, in many cases, Oldham seems to benefit from prettier production. “Just to see my Holly Home” is a jangling, almost danceable song that Belle and Sebastian might wish they had come up with first. Oldham is in finest form here with a bright and careless song about brutally killing off those who might intrude on his isolated and beloved home: “Pound them down and pound them out, older ladies scream and shout, hide their bodies in the reeds.”

Will Oldham might be taken as a writer for children, if not listened to closely enough. Like many fairy tales, his writing is fantastical and rhymed but with undertones that are chilling or surprising . “At Break of Day” is not about a beautiful sunrise, but a woman finding her lover a suicide victim the next morning. The melodic and undulating “A King at Night” reminisces, albeit quite frankly, about a Queen who is gone: “She was a fine looking lady and she liked to go down on me.”

Part of Oldham’s charm is that the songs just flow from him assiduously, as if completely uncensored. But, one of the drawbacks of Oldham’s prolific songwriting is that he creates such a huge catalogue of songs that quite a number of them are just expendable. Oldham’s strange, seemingly unedited lyrics are cryptic and often brilliant but occasionally turn into predictable rhyming nightmares. “Careless Love” is a sparse number similar to an Irish ballad that seems unworthy of Oldham’s other work: “Slamming the door I say ‘sorry,’ I say ‘bye bye,’ I say ‘I miss you,’ I say ‘cry, cry.”

There is probably no perfect album from Will Oldham, but that is part of the reason he remains so amiable. Oldham’s records are blistered and beautiful, often thriving on imperfection alone. Although it probably isn’t the best album by Oldham, “Ease Down the Road” is not a bad introduction to the neo-cowboy bard. If “Ease Down the Road” is not appealing, Will Oldham has at least another twelve albums