Sweet Billy Pilgrim

Sighing, sleepy, sadly breathtaking, the lonely-minstrel music of London trio (and 2009 Mercury Prize nominee) Sweet Billy Pilgrim is composed by singer-guitarist Tim Elsenburg. The act takes its name from Kurt Vonnegut’s gentle, hapless nomad hero of Slaughterhouse 5, and the winsome, wistful, and just a bit precious music echoes its chosen moniker. Tender indie folk backgrounds slowly unfold, ethereally rich landscapes which often seem barely more than nothingness, as Elsenburg’s unfulfilled protagonists howl at the moon, choke on their hopes, and wait for a savior who never seems to come.