Love is the First Law / There

Back in 2015 broeder Dieleman and Bonnie "Prince" Billy toured the Netherlands together, with unique unamplified performances in small churches. The collaboration formed a 7 inch single, on which they covered each other's work, both in their own language. One of the songs on this 7 inch even amassed a total of 1.6 million streams on Spotify.

Now, 6 years later, there is a sequel. During the lockdown the two musicians sent each other a title for a song that they then started working on. Bonnie "Prince Billy" wrote 'Love is the first law' (based on a text by Jan Huissoon, a 19th century folk artist you can already know from broeder Dieleman's work) and broeder Dieleman wrote 'There are worms in your circle, there are wolves'.

Broeder Dieleman, who acquired the skill of making paper cut-art during the lockdowns, made the cover on which we see Jan de Prentenknipper, a peddler, a hawker, on the road to sell his merchandise as musicians cannot at the moment.

The 7 inch single was recorded in Louisville, Los Angeles, Chicago, Utrecht and Melbourne and features a variety of international musicians. From Jim White (Dirty Three) to Peter Slager (Bløf).

Both songs on the 7 inch are unmistakably folk songs, in the best meaning of that word. Calm and honest, but with interesting turns and surprises. With 'Love is the first law' starting off serene but halfway through transforming into something more ominous, and 'There are worms in your circle' featuring Dieleman's banjo and a stunningly sounding cello.

With this second single by Oldham and Dieleman something of a tradition begins to emerge. The two musicians made a pact to release more singles in the future, whenever the time is right, and that will always be something to look forward to.