While more under the radar in the “grizzled, bearded, singer-songwriter” realm of artists like Ray LaMontagne and Iron & Wine, the especially crusty Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (aka Will Oldham) nonetheless maintains a position near the center of the alt.country universe. Analogies should veer from the galactic, however, because Oldham’s work is heavily based in soil, earth and roots of both the agricultural and musical variety.

Beware is the 15th full-length addition to Oldham’s prolific catalog, which included releases as Palace Brothers, Palace Music and Will Oldham before settling on the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy moniker. The album is deep country, influenced by the depression-influenced music of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. It is, however, less a tribute to roots Americana as a modern interpretation of this dust bowl balladry. Beware is an album for the new recession.

As necessitated by tough times, the music is thematically and elementally lean. Oldham offers no smoke and mirror production trickery and possesses no singular trump card like Ray LaMontagne’s magic wand of a voice. His timbre is genuine but average. Topics are universal — love, loss, loneliness and the appreciation of good moments in tough times. Lyrically, the album is loaded with dark humor, (“I want to be your only friend. Is that scary?”), and religious connotation.

While the album never gets big or loud, it does rollick. “Heart’s Arms” crescendos with layers of violin, choir backing and guitar before dropping off into cello vibration. The simplicity lies in the easy identification of contributors to this lushness. Each instrument sounds like itself. So Beware isn’t showy or especially innovative, yet it is achingly full, its richness coming from the layering of guitar, fiddle, choir, cello, xylophone, horn, flute and Oldham’s down-but-not-out warble.

The album shines in its cohesion. “I am Goodbye” is the sound of a band in perfect unity. This track is foot stomping country dance music on the other end of the spectrum of the waltz lamentation “I Don’t Belong to Anyone.” “I am Goodbye” is a twangy, hand-clapping standout.

The back-to-basics instrumentation of Beware lends well to the mood. The album is a soundtrack for the unemployment, financial collapse and bruised morale that constitute both current circumstance and depression-era reality of the artists it emulates. Beware seems to say that in uncertain times, the best we can do is embrace the small, sweet and genuine.

“Afraid Ain’t Me,” a boho bongo-drum flute jam, is the slickest track. It’s haunting simmer suggests dark thoughts, big problems and deep woes under Beware’s convivial nature. Track order may be a fading art, but the song plays like the album’s sober summation that life, while beautiful, is a hard and ultimately solitary endeavor. There is strength in this. Athough aware and wary, Oldham reassures, “afraid ain’t me.”

I love this album. It’s sad and comfortable and lonesome. This is a good thing.

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