Bonnie Prince Billy, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

Will Oldham (AKA Bonnie Prince Billy) last played at Celtic Connections in 2007 with Edinburgh-based folk players Harem Scarem. That collaboration eventually led to a live album, ‘Is It The Sea?’, and highlighted the influence of Scottish folk traditions on his music.

His latest album, ‘Wolfroy Goes To Town’, is a more stripped down affair, but also seems to owe more to British folk music than a lot of the Americana of his contemporaries – not that Bonnie Prince Billy really has any contemporaries, rather a surfeit of inferior imitators. No number of Fleet Foxes or Mumfords have reached this kind of drama and darkness in their music, no matter how bushy their beards.

There is something particularly out of time about this album. Tonight’s live show, performed by the same musicians as on the record, uses traditional acoustic instruments with a sparse, delicate power - the perfect backing for Oldham’s uniquely weathered voice.

Beginning with ‘Lion Lair’, the slightly sinister tone is set. The audience, mostly awed into silence, treat him with a rare reverence. Newer songs like ‘Black Captain’ sit well beside older tunes. Angel Olsen and Emmet Kelly’s vocals make the end of ‘Cows’ a swirl of harmonies.

‘Quail & Dumplings’, the most markedly political song of the set, calls to mind a depression-era protest song. ‘You Win’ sees Oldham demonstrating his idiosyncratic standing-on-one-leg moves, causing him to resemble a bloodhound at a square dance.

Odd moments of humour come through even the dourest lyrics. ‘I See A Darkness’ is even rendered uncharacteristically jaunty. Oldham, still somewhat overwhelmed by seeing June Tabor, Martin Simpson and Dick Gaughan play at the festival the previous night, performs the traditional song ‘I Never Thought My Love Would Leave Me’ in tribute.

The festival provides intriguing context for his work, as does ‘Because Of Your Eyes’, his closing version of a song by Bakersfield country singer Merle Haggard, who like Oldham is an artist with many admirers but few peers.