The channeler

In a small, shadowy room at the Moroccan-themed Figueroa Hotel, Will Oldham sat cross-legged on the floor, dressed all in black with slashes of kohl under his eyes, capitulating to one of his most dreaded tasks, the interview, with the sweet agitation of a little boy. He fidgeted with a small silver vessel when he wasn't stroking his profusion of wheat-colored facial hair.

Based in his hometown of Louisville, Ky., Oldham is one of the most prolific, idolized and enigmatic figures of American indie folk. At 39, he's an elder of sorts to the New Weird Americana scene, based on a credo of lyrical reflections cast in bare-boned acoustics, and often steeped in the natural world. But Oldham's version is also leavened with the element of surprise -- lascivious songs that would make R. Kelly blush, and maverick moves like covering the output of his former band with Nashville session musicians on "Sings Greatest Palace Music."

The neo-troubadour spends half of his year traveling, playing from dozens of albums released under various monikers, including Palace, Palace Brothers and, for the last 11 years, Bonnie "Prince" Billy. He roams to far-flung locales such as Reykjavik, Iceland, where he recorded "The Letting Go," his delicate album from 2006.

While on a three-month tour through North America and Europe that kicks off this week for his new album, "Beware," Oldham will leave behind a fledgling romance and his recently widowed mother. And though he'll be traveling with a band of good friends and musicians, including guitarist Emmett Kelly and percussionist Michael Zerang, he's adopted a coping philosophy.

"I can't consider any of that time as time away," Oldham said, "because you don't want to spend half of your life being away or where you shouldn't be. I choose to think of all the time as being present. I'm always home."

But home doesn't always mean comfortable. Oldham, who enjoys an intimacy with listeners by playing unplanned shows or releasing albums and one-off songs with no announcement, does not enjoy conveying his thoughts to the media. He's bewildered more than a few journalists with non sequiturs seemingly crafted to discourage his premier indie labels, Drag City in the U.S. and Domino in the U.K., from putting his wildly bearded visage in front of the press ever again.