Deep within the roots of the post punk "do it yourself"�� ideology, there is a world of lo-fi musicians who are changing the face of the scene. One such musician is Will Oldham. Over the past decade or so, Oldham has been known by many monikers, the most recent of which being Bonnie "Prince" Billy. When Oldham was asked by Phoenix magazine why he changed his name, Oldham was quoted as saying, "Well, I guess the idea is that when you have a name of a group or an artist, then you expect that the next record, if it has the same name, should be the same group of people playing on it. And I just thought we were making a different kind of record each time, with different people, and different themes, and different sounds. So I thought it was important to call it something different so that people would be aware of the differences."

The story of Will Oldham begins at the age of 17, when Oldham got his first role in the feature film, Matewan. This was the beginning of a new era for the young man. He decided to move to Hollywood and pursue a career in acting. While generally well received, he chose to quit in 1989 due to his growing distrust of the film industry. Since then, Oldham has mainly focused on his music career occasionally taking roles in independent films.

It all began back in 1993 with the release There is No-One Who Will Take Care of You under the name Palace Brothers. This name would only last for one more full-length album entitled Days in the Wake. Both of these albums would be quite successful within the lo-fi scene, but the general public never really got any glimpse of them. In 1995, Oldham released his next full-length album under the name Palace Music. Viva Last Blues, the only Palace Music release, began a new era of Oldham, one that would lead him into new sounds and ultimately his current success. In 1996 the album Arise Therefore was released under the name of Palace. This would be the last time that Oldham would ever use the Palace moniker.

In 1997, the only full-length album released under the name Will Oldham hit record stores. Joya was a more successful than many of the previous albums and gained Oldham even more accreditation. It was then that people began to discover older Palace projects.

Finally, in 1999 Oldham's masterpiece, I See a Darkness was released by Drag City under the name, Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The title track from the album became the biggest success when Johnny Cash covered it with backing vocals by Oldham himself. Since the release, many point to it as one of the greatest albums of all time. Pitchfork named it #9 on a list of the top 100 albums of the 90's. Since I See a Darkness, Bonnie Billy has released three more full-length studio albums and one live album in which he plays the greatest Palace songs.