Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)

Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
2001
Bluegrass / Americana / Female Vocalist

For those who believe that bluegrass necessarily involves the coal choked bellowing of superannuated hillbillies accompanied by frenetic banjo pluckings and screeching fiddles, Gillian Welch's songs may come as surprise.  That's because these dusky Appalachian ballads delight in simplicity and unfold in a leisurely walk.  The intricate instrumentation of more uptempo bluegrass has been jettisoned in favor of clean melodies played on Clawhammer banjo and acoustic guitar, the sole instruments featured on the album.   Gillian's honeyed voice makes up for this lack of musical variation, however, and keeps the tracks from sounding too spartan.

The album opens with the title track, a dissonant and melancholy song about betrayal that packs an emotional punch despite it's languid pace.  While this track sets the tone for the rest of the album, not all the songs that follow are despondent strum und drang pieces.  The lilting "Red Clay Halo" makes for a playful break into sunshine while the bluesy "My First Lover" tips its hat to black spirituals.  Another stand out is "Dear Someone" (Sample 2), a wistful lullaby about the desire to be swept away by dreams of love.  However, these are exceptions to the rule as Gillian seems more comfortable working in minor key solemnity.  A case in point is the penultimate track "Everything is Free," an austere, elegiac song whose unrelieved sadness does get a bit cloying.

Then there is the last track, the epic "I Dream a Highway" (Sample 1).  Like the rest of the album the song is simple, maintaining a 4 measure melody (with slight variation) for all of it's 14 minutes.  Here the guitar remains understated and the entirety of the track is carried by Gillian's haunted vocals.  It is easily the best song on the album and, in fact, would threaten to overshadow the other tracks were they of lesser quality.  As it stands, it is a perfect closer for an collection of slow and enchanting -- one might even say mystical -- bluegrass that rounds out the sometimes stilted picture that people have of Appalachian music.

Samples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvREUDH2BZ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_SbWzbjueQ