Song: Ashley Shadow ft. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Don’t Slow Me Down review

By Phil Scarisbrick

Fresh off the back of announcing her second album – Only the End – Vancouver-native, Ashley Shadow. has put out the first taste what we can expect with lead single, Don’t Slow Me Down. A duet with Bonnie Prince Billy, the track is a country-tinged folk ballad that celebrates experience, and the ability to push back on the inevitability of missing out on something.

A gently strummed electric guitar provides an anchor for the lush sounding slide guitar and the intertwining voices of Shadow and Will Oldham. With the former taking the first verse, before passing on the baton, it is when their two voices come together that the song really takes off. As they sing the eponymous hook, they invert the dynamic as Oldham swings from taking the low melody to the high in the space of four words.

Uncertain tomorrow would be here at all / We outran the darkness and shook off the cold / Taking back feeling from all it controlled,’ they sing, defiantly usurping what is expected of life in search of happiness.

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