Browse Articles
Showing articles posted by user Brian1964Smith
(x)
-
Gillian Welch, the Los Angeles-raised musician, whose lyrics and voice conjure Appalachian hollows, Dust Bowl highways, and Nashville morphine dens, released her first album, “Revival,” twenty years ago. Several of the songs sounded as ... -
Back in September I accompanied 33 of my college seminarians to Washington, DC to be with Pope Francis. It wasn’t a vacation. It was a pilgrimage.
A vacation is supposed to be comfortable, predictable, controllable, restful, and pleasant. A pilg... -
Over the past two decades David Rawlings and Gillian Welch have gained a huge following in the worlds of folk and Americana music. Their sparse instrumentation blends perfectly with soulful voices that deliver expertly crafted lyrics in a way that is e... -
Exploring the Hazy American Landscape of Welch’s Best Album
I.
So there you stand, ready for the end of the world. The End of All Time. That promised moment of revelation and release. (Promised by whom? All sorts of preachers, two-bit prophets,... -
Was there a feeling, a character or an event in particular that inspired your new record, The Harrow and the Harvest?There definitely are some themes on it that deal with the passage of time, and reversals, and changes, and what happens to human relati... -
In the second week of May, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings drove from Los Angeles to Nashville. The journey took 31 hours, and Welch filmed a small portion of it on her iPhone. The clip is framed by an open car window, and outside you can see the floo... -
How long has it been since Gillian Welch put out a new album? If you’ve stumbled across even a glancing reference to The Harrow & The Harvest, you know the album arrived eight years after its predecessor, 2003’s Soul Journey. To put thi... -
You might say Dave Rawlings is an opinionated guy. That’s immediately evident the first time you speak to him at any great length. He freely answers whatever questions an inquiring journalist might pose. If he’s really interested in the top... -
Rawlings is best-known for his longtime collaboration, singing of harmony, guitar playing and producing with spartan folkstress Gillian Welch. He’s also the unofficial sixth member of Old Crow Medicine Show. With his new backing band, Dave Rawlin... -
Although the records are released under Gillian Welch’s name, she and David Rawlings are essentially a duo. They write together, record together and perform together, and his guitar parts and harmonies are essential to their songs. They’re ...