Gillian Welch

Americana artist Gillian Welch was born in New York and adopted by a pair of comedy music entertainers. Welch later learned that her mother may have grown up in the mountains of North Carolina, possibly an explanation for how her music is able to tap into a bygone era. Songs like ‘The Devil had a Hold of Me’ and ‘Miner’s Refrain’ situate Welch in early 20th century Appalachia.

Welch, however, was a late convert to roots music – in college she played drums in a psychedelic surf band and bass in a goth band named Penny Dreadful. When a college roommate played a bluegrass record by The Stanley Brothers, her future musical course was determined

Welch moved to Nashville after finishing college, realising all her favourite music was made there. She was a successful songwriter before releasing her first album; ‘Orphan Girl’ was a standout on Emmylou Harris‘ 1995 classic Wrecking Ball. She was fortunate to have veteran roots-rock producer T-Bone Burnett work on her 1996 debut Revival.

Welch is billed as a solo act, but she’s supported by partner David Rawlings on guitar and harmony vocals. Rawlings’ guitar sound is distinctive – his primary instrument is a 1935 Epiphone Olympic arch top guitar. Welch has been far from prolific, only releasing five studio albums to date, although she’s also co-written many songs of the on Rawlings’ solo records. Her demo recordings, released in 2020 as Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, are well worth hearing. She also has notable non-album material; it’s worth checking out her cover of Radiohead‘s ‘Black Star’, while 2018’s ‘When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings’ was nominated for an Oscar.

Gillian Welch Album Reviews

Revival | Hell Among the Yearlings | Time (The Revelator) | Soul Journey | The Harrow and the Harvest | Boots No 1: The Official Revival Bootleg | All The Good Times | Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vol. 1 | Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vol. 2 | Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vol. 3

Soundtrack: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

David Rawlings: A Friend of a Friend | Nashville Obselete | Poor David’s Almanack

Revival

1996, 8.5/10
Gillian Welch had her act completely figured out by the time she released her first record. She’s fortunate to have T-Bone Burnett in the producer’s chair, who leaves Revival low-key and dignified, using vintage equipment once used by Hank Williams. The musical backing is restrained, but includes luminaries like Jim Keltner on drums, James Burton on guitar, and Greg Leisz on dobro, although as always the key support comes from the harmonies and guitar of David Rawlings.

One reason for the authenticity of Revival is that Welch is able to harness the potency of religion – the record opens with the line “I am an orphan on God’s highway”, while the lyric of ‘By The Mark’ is unadulterated gospel. There’s just enough variety to keep Revival moving – ‘Pass You By’ and ‘Tear My Stillhouse Down’ inject some electric blues – but the main attractions on Revival are the plaintive vocals and pretty guitar picking of tracks like ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Acony Bell’.

Revival is an outstanding debut, a record that stands out in Welch’s consistent catalogue.


Hell Among the Yearlings

1998, 7.5/10
Revival wasn’t a bed of roses, but Welch’s second set of songs is even darker. Songs like ‘My Morphine’ and ‘One Morning’ are imbued with a bleakness that enhances their authenticity. T-Bone Burnett is back in the producer’s chair, and provides a suitably austere sound. Apart from T-Bone Burnett’s piano and organ on ‘Whiskey Girl’, Welch and Rawlings play all the instruments themselves – Welch plays banjo on ‘The Devil Had A Hold of Me’, ‘One Morning’, and ‘Rock of Ages’.

Despite the changes in approach, Hell Among the Yearlings represents a mild sophomore slump. It’s largely a repeat of the early 20th century Appalachian folk songs, but not as prepossessing. The chorus of ‘Miner’s Refrain’ lacks the naturalness of most of Welch’s material; the “down in the hole” chorus seems forced. There’s still a lot to like; the supple finger-picking of ‘Caleb Meyer’ and a revisit to the Christian themes of Revival on ‘Rock of Ages’ are both welcome.

Hell Among the Yearlings is largely successful in its role as the darker sibling of Revival, but it’s still one of Welch’s lesser efforts.


Time (The Revelator)

2001, 9/10
Welch’s credibility as a writer of mountain ballads was questioned by some critics; she stepped in a different direction with her third album. Her songs are still presented in acoustic form, with just Rawlings and Welch playing instruments, but the lyrical focus is different. These songs trawl through a wide sweep of American history, dealing with Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the Titanic sinking, and Elvis Presley. Tucked away among the history are some of Welch’s most personal songs – you learn more about Welch from a single couplet like “I do not remember any goin’ wrong/Just a record playin that old Steve Miller song” than from her entire first two records.

The most celebrated piece is the closer ‘I Dream A Highway’, which clocks in at almost fifteen minutes. It’s strangely hypnotic despite its slow pacing and minimal harmonic interest; it helps that Welch’s lyrics are strong with lines like “Now you be Emmylou and I’ll be Gram/I send a letter, don’t know who I am.” The version of ‘Revelator’ was intended as a microphone test, but it captured the spontaneous first take feel that Rawlings (in the producer’s seat this time) were searching for. April 14 is the date of both Lincoln’s assassination and the Titanic’s accident; referenced in the song pair ‘April the 14th (Part 1)’ and ‘Ruination Day (Part 2)’.

Marrying the magical and intuitive interplay of Welch and Rawlings with more expansive songwriting, Time (The Revelation) is the duo’s masterpiece.


Soul Journey

2003, 8/10
Welch’s fourth album expands the duo approach of the previous two records – there are more outside musicians than on any other Welch record. Some of the songs have a rhythm section, and there’s other augmentation like fiddle and organ. Welch includes covers for this first time on Soul Journey, but paradoxically it’s also more autobiographical than anything she’d recorded previously; ‘No One Knows My Name’ and ‘Wrecking Ball’ presumably tell large pieces of her back-story.

Soul Journey is a less immersive experience than the brilliance of Time (The Revelator), but there’s a lot of strong material here. Opener ‘Look at Miss Ohio’ is one of Welch’s best-known tracks, later covered by Miranda Lambert. Welch writes extra lyrics for the traditional songs ‘Make Me A Pallet on Your Floor’ and ‘I Had A Real Good Mother & Father’, and makes them her own. The best stuff is at the end of Soul Journey – the delicate ‘I Made A Lover’s Prayer’ captures some of the same magic as ‘I Dream A Highway’. ‘Wrecking Ball’ is the biggest departure in Welch’s catalogue; with a solid back-beat and crunching guitar, it’s like a slice of 1970s classic rock, but it works brilliantly, telling of Welch’s college years as a “little Deadhead”. It showcases her brilliant lyric writing skills; “Look out boys, ’cause I’m a rollin’ stone” is an all time great opening line.

Soul Journey feels like a compilation after the immersive brilliance of Time (The Revelator), but it features some of Welch’s best songs all the same.


The Harrow and the Harvest

2011, 7.5/10
Welch took a long time to follow Soul Journey, scrapping several albums of material and releasing a light-hearted record with Rawlings acting as front-man. When a follow-up finally arrived, it was dour and low-key. Welch’s voice is deeper and more weathered, and The Harrow and the Harvest is closest in tone to the darkness of Hell Among the Yearlings. Welch and Rawlings aren’t augmented by any outside musicians, and songs like ‘Dark Turn of Mind’ and ‘The Way It Goes’ are bleak.

It’s the songs that look for hope among the darkness that are my favourites here. ‘Hard Times’ features the refrain; “Hard times ain’t gonna rule my mind”, and it’s a beacon of light from an artist who’s admitted she’s struggles with writing unless she’s completely miserable. ‘Down Along the Dixie Line’ is pretty, while songs like ‘Scarlet Town’ and ‘Six White Horses’ capture the old-time feel that Welch is so adept it.

Even though it doesn’t break much new ground, The Harrow and the Harvest measures up to Welch’s high standards, and as her only record of the decade it’s worth hearing.


All The Good Times (with Dave Rawlings)

2020, 7/10
Welch and Rawlings have been joined at the hip throughout their musical career, providing harmonies and guitar for each other’s records. All The Good Times is their first album as a joint billing. It’s a quarantine album of covers – Rawlings announced it on Instagram, saying “in the Spring of 2020 Gillian and I dusted off an old tape machine and did some home recording.”

All The Good Times is exactly what you’d expect from Welch and Rawlings delivering a record of traditional tunes and singer-songwriter fare. It’s not surprising that they cover Bob Dylan and John Prine, and it’s not surprisingly that All The Good Times feels intimate with lovely harmony singing and guitar picking. The pair take turns at lead vocals – the pristine precision of Welch contrasts with the roughness of Rawlings – they sound lovely together on ‘Jackson’. Rawling’s cover of Dylan’s ‘Abandoned Love’, a 1975 outtake, is amazingly Dylanesque. The sudden tape noise and halt on ‘Abandoned Love’ is one of the few reminders of the homespun nature – half of these tracks are first takes, but the pair have played together so long that it feels natural and real.

It’s nothing revelatory, but All The Good Times is lovely comfort food for trying times.


Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs

2020, 9/10
It’s been a banner year for Gillian Welch fans – she’d been quiet ever since 2003’s Soul Journey, with only one subsequent studio album. In 2020, she’s already released a quarantine album of covers with partner Dave Rawlings, and she’s now released 48 songs from her archive as Boots No. 2. The release of Boots No. 2 was prompted by a tornado – in early March, the roof was torn off their recording studio, and Welch and Rawlings scrambled to save their equipment and archived recordings. The salvage process made them realise they cared for the material (Welch told Rolling Stone that “It’s one thing to know in your mind that you have these tapes, and it’s another thing to run through the dark with them in your arms, rescuing them from destruction”), and they’ve released it over three volumes during the back end of 2020.

Welch needed to deliver a prescribed number of songs by the end of 2002 to complete a publishing deal. Accordingly, all 48 songs were recorded in a single weekend in December 2002 and releasing them has almost doubled her back-catalogue. Despite the quick recording process, The Lost Songs feels apiece with most of Welch’s other material; as always it’s centred around Welch and Rawlings’ harmonies with Rawlings adding adornment, often on his 1935 Epiphone Olympic guitar.

Releasing 48 quality new songs at once is impressive and Boots No. 2 is more than the sum of its parts – I would rank the individual volumes as follows:

Volume 1

8/10
The first sixteen songs from the archives are collected on Volume 1. ‘Johnny Dear’ immediately sets the standard high while ‘First Place Ribbon’ showcases Rawlings’ picking – his ability to provide interesting lead parts on so many tracks is key. Welch is able to tap into powerful tradition on ‘Give That Man A Road’ and ‘Mighty Good Book’. ‘Valley of Tears’, covered by Solomon Burke, is simple and graceful. The bluesy ‘Honey Baby’ features a surprisingly raw vocal, and ‘Here Come the News’ is a pretty closer.

Volume 2

8.5/10
The second volume is the strongest, even though it’s less stylistically diverse than the first; ‘First September’, however, is closer to olde English folk than anything else in Welch’s catalogue. There is a mix in approaches – charming yet straightforward pieces like the blues of ‘Didn’t I’ and ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ are mixed in with more nuanced songs. Highlights include the vulnerability of ‘Beautiful Boy’ and ‘Picasso’, where Welch imagines encountering the artist in rural America.

Volume 3

7.5/10
The third volume has more songs that will already be familiar to Welch fans – ‘How’s About You’ turned up on a Rawlings solo album, while ‘Make Me A Pallet on Your Floor’ and ‘One Little Song’ later turned up on Soul Journey. ‘Streets of St. Paul’ is also a clear rough draft of ‘Wrecking Ball’. The duplication makes Volume 3 a smidge less essential than the first two volumes, but there are still gems – ‘Sin City’ (not a Flying Burrito Brothers cover) and ‘Peace In The Valley’ (also an original).

New listeners might want to start with Revival or Time (The Revelator), but this archival release is essential for Welch fans, especially given her small discography.

Ten Best Gillian Welch Songs

Wrecking Ball
I Dream a Highway
Orphan Girl
Revelator
Picasso
Hard Times
Red Clay Halo
I Made A Lover’s Prayer
By The Mark
Give That Man a Road

Soundtrack

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2000, 8/10
The Coen Brothers movie, set in the Great Depression, was filmed in sepia and featured a soundtrack of grassroots music from the period. While some of the songs are field recordings from the period, like Harry McClintock’s ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’, most are contemporary recordings of old songs. Gillian Welch served as the associate producer and contributed to two songs, and it’s very much a continuation of her exploration of early 20th century Americana on her first two solo records – T-Bone Burnett was the producer and primary instigator. The soundtrack was an integral part of the film – recorded before the film was shot – and was massively successful, going 8x platinum and topping the US charts.

As you’d expect from a soundtrack, it’s a mixed bag. While there’s a unity in era, there’s significant divergence between the serious songs and novelties like The Peasall Sisters’ unique vocals on ‘In The Highways’. Veteran Ralph Stanley shines on ‘O Death’ and ‘Angel Band’, but I’m most interested in the efforts of contemporary artists like Welch and Alison Krauss. Krauss’ take on the African-American spiritual ‘Down in the River to Pray’ is gorgeous, while Krauss and Welch collaborate on the lovely ‘I’ll Fly Away’. Emmylou Harris joins Krauss and Welch on ‘Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby’, a traditional lullaby that Welch and Burnett wrote extra lyrics for.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? was so successful that it’s effectively become a sampler to early 20th century American folk music, and it does a great job of summarising the era.


Dave Rawlings Machine

A Friend of a Friend

2009, 7/10
Rawlings never sang lead on a Gillian Welch record, instead playing his support roles beautifully. He provided guitar, harmony vocals, and co-wrote with Welch. Eventually the pair stock-piled 40 minutes of songs that suited Rawlings’ voice better, and his solo debut was released in 2009. Welch sings backing vocals, while Rawlings is also joined by Bright Eyes and members of the Old Crow Medicine Show and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. Rawlings is a less entrancing front-man than Welch; while Welch has a quiet gravitas, Rawlings’ Dylanesque yelp is better suited to lighter fare.

Along with five songs co-written with Welch, Rawlings features a song he co-wrote on Ryan Adams’ celebrated album Heartbreaker. ‘To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)’ is rollicking fun, as are originals like ‘How’s About You’. The highlight though, is the paired covers at the centre of the record – Conor Oberst’s ‘Method Acting’ segues into a lovely acoustic take on Neil Young’s ‘Cortez the Killer’.

Rawlings’ doesn’t excel as the focal point like he does as Welch’s second banana, but as a Welch fan it’s fun to see him step into the limelight on A Friend of a Friend.

Note: Rawlings has made two further albums that I haven’t caught up with:

  • Nashville Obsolete (2015)
  • Poor David’s Almanack (2017)

Back to 1990s Album Reviews….

6 Comments

  1. I was on a Gillian (and Dave) kick for a while, a while ago. Soon to return often. I was also catching her on programs I was watching. I get a lot of inspiration from her music. She fits a certain mood I’m always looking for. For me she just has a string of good tunes that I keep discovering and hearing new things. I might go on a jag after this take. Problem is I know I’ll get stuck in it for a while. Not a bad thing. Nice to see someone give her some well deserved due.

  2. I have enjoyed Gillian’s reading of folk music over the years. Thanks for keeping the music alive. Born in NYC raised in West LA (Nothing wrong with that). Where did you get the fake southern Appalachian accent? David, nice cowboy hat & denim shirt. do you live in the country, raise horses, grow corn? y’all have studied the genre. you look cool. No authentic grit. again, thanks for the tunes.
    written by an Appalachian.

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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.

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