People, let’s talk about an album. Bonnie Prince Billy has made a number of them, and heard a bunch more in his time of knowing. He’s found them hewn from moments, admired them as small and accountable – the communication of music in emotion, release and catharsis, to edify, to entertain, in two sides and less than an hour.

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, due August 11th via Domino, presents...

With Best Troubador, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy pays homage to a long-time and forever hero, the late Merle Haggard. A singer who, some 25 years previously, first performed in public by playing a Merle Haggard song, Bonny has often cited Merle's work in performance, on records and in conversation with anyone who was around, even talking to Merle himself for Filter magazine in 2009.

Merle's body of work was considered by...