Billy The Kid ain’t too proud to beg on her new single and video Fall In Love With Me, Please — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
There’s needy, and then there’s just honest. And you can always count on Billy Pettinger to be honest. On her new single — her second as part of the trio Billy The Kid & Your Funeral — the straight shooter places a bid for affection that’s as plainspoken as it is heartbreaking. Making her contribution to the school of lonelyhearts club songcraft, the Vancouver-born, Detroit-based Pettinger confesses she, too, has been looking for love in all the wrong places:
“I made a shirt
That said ‘Fall In Love With Me’
I took an ad out in the obituaries
Just in case you like to frequent
Places as sad as some of the nights I’ve had.”
It’s a bracing sentiment, all right, and the music doesn’t obscure it one iota. The sparse, folkified pop-rock laid down by Pettinger and her bandmates — veteran drummer Atom Willard (Rockt From The Crypt, Against Me!, Alkaline Trio) and bassist Marc Jacob Hudson (Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers) — graciously hangs back so every syllable of the gently pleading vocal can tug at your sleeve and your heartstrings.
Oh, and that bit about the obituaries? It’s no mere melodrama. Fall In Love With Me, Please arrives almost nine years to the day Pettinger woke up in a hospital bed after swallowing the contents of her medicine cabinet over seemingly insurmountable personal and professional pressures. Fortunately, she not only survived but thrived, thanks to the support of fans and her own indomitable work ethic.
A genuinely prolific artist, Pettinger has released numerous albums over the past two decades under a variety of monikers: Her real name, Billy The Kid, Billy And The Lost Boys, Billy The Kid & The South Side Boys and now Billy The Kid & Your Funeral. She’s also a big fan of song-a-day writing and recording challenges, including one that yielded the material for her 2021 album, There Is Only Right Now.
The new single, in fact, dropped just two weeks after the new band’s debut track Fallout. At the same time, Pettinger has been busy making videos, including a clip for Fall In Love With Me, Please that uses the adorable canine PizzaFox AnkleSox to sell the message that in matters of the heart, it’s better to adopt than shop.
Billy and the boys have an album coming in October. Its title — I Have To Do This — neatly sums up her seemingly endless appetite for self-direction. Maybe getting a second chance at life renews your focus, but truth be told, she never had much of an “off” switch. She’s working hard to make you love her, so maybe it’s time to just give in.
Watch the video for Fall In Love With Me, Please, hear more from Billy The Kid & Your Funeral below, and find her on her website, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
