Newspaper Page Text
ARlANNA MERCER
DREAMING A HIGHWAY
-uitfLru
(zJ&JL. ~^^CLnJULsx^ (
Qiiho^-OOJLL
T he cat is hardly out of the bag regarding the steady arc of
Gillian Welch's unique status in the American songbook. Since
i996, she has released somebody's bona fide favorite record
every two and a half years. With a wheelbarrow full of Grammy
nominations, all-star collaborations and soundtrack contributions,
she still enjoys a quiet celebrity unshared by most colleagues of
her stature. Perhaps a result of her obliquely demure demeanor,
it only fuels the mystique compelled by the calm intensity of her
presence onstage and on tape.
T he catch with Welch falls where her historical context meets
the breadth of her palette. In the decade since her first album,
1996's Revival, was released, an ongoing proliferation of acoustic
sensibility has blossomed throughout popular music. Call it the
unplugged effect, and witness it everywhere from Uncle Tupelo to
Outkast's “Hey Ya," from the resurgence of Neil Young to the mo
ment Beck dropped that deliciously hokey slide loop that names
“Loser." Attribute it to a generation of musicians and music fans
born in the late '60s and early 70s coming to roost in the fold of
the radio of that era. They are the folks that brought you alt-coun
try in its here-to-stay form. They are now the torchbearers of their
own influences; in the South, this was often country music, with
roots winding back to the Appalachian hills, before electricity,
when there were only strings.
The smash success of the Coen Brothers' 2002 film 0 Brother,
Where Art Thou? and its accompanying soundtrack came as little
surprise to diehard fans of old-timey and bluegrass music. Tucked
into the folds of the soundtrack was a voice already known
throughout the songwriter world, one that embodied the soul of
longing, regret, sorrow and, ultimately, hope.
By then, Welch was barely more than Nashville-famous, even
with countless high-profile contributions on tributes to the likes
of Gram Parsons, Kate Wolf and Pete Seeger; she hao collaborations
in the bag with Ani DiFranco, Allison Krauss and Ralph Stanley.
Additionally, she and partner David Rawlings found time to act as
Whiskeytown frontman Ryan Adams' backing band on his solo de
but Heartbreaker.
In the six years prior to 0 Brother, Welch had also churned
out three discs of her own compositions—Revival, 1998's Hell
Among the Yearlings and 2001's Time (The Revelotor)—each too
mystifyingly succinct with tradition to seem contemporary. 2003's
Soul Journey continued the trend of creating albums that seemed
unearthed, plow-hewn, found accidentally in a tree stump along
some windy gap. When the world finally came around to Gillian
Welch, her work stood openly prepared.
A dopted the day after her birth in 1967 by two Manhattan musi
cians who made their living writing for television and Broadway,
Welch moved with her parents to Los Angeles after they secured a
gig writing for “The Carol Burnett Show." She grew up around in
struments and songbooks, and ostensibly started playing in bauds
as soon as she started college at U.C. Santa Cruz. The excess and
freedom of college led to a spin out. Art and ceramic classes fol
lowed, and she moved into a house where a few folks played blue-
grass. and the effect was electric. Pizza parlor gigs followed, but
nothing about her said “pay any attention tc me* at the time.
After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, a shaken and rest
less Welch took a hiatus house-sitting in Wales before returning to
the states for music instruction at The Berklee College of Music in
Boston. There she met David Rawlings, who would become her col
laborator and partner. She stayed at Berklee for two years and ma
jored in songwriting. After realizing every album she'd ever loved
came out of Nashville, she decided to tny her luck there before
completing the degree. Rawlings joined her there later and the two
began making the singer-songwriter rounds as a duo.
At the Bluebird Cafe in November 1993, Welch signed her first
writing contract. Her first master session came in 1994 with Robert
Earl Keen's "Gringo Honeymoon," and a 1996 Starbucks compila
tion featured her song "Paper Wings." Jerry Moss signed the two
to Almo Records the same year and released Revival. By the rime
Hell Among the Yearlings was released, it was clear that Welch had
spent a great deal of her years absorbing the traditions of musical
Appalachia. Her songs have been performed and recorded by artists
like Solomon Burke, Chris Thile and Jimmy Buffett.
Filtering those traditions through a narrative lens that focuses
on a protagonist singing in first or second person. Welch's songs
convey the restlessness of the poor, the weary, the unlucky. David
Rawlings' delicate and nimble melodic accompjniment underscores
her relentlessly accurate rhythmic strumming, and the effect is
captivating. When the two share harmonies, it's a powerful and
tonic blend of rustic noir.
Coy King
r \
WHO: Gillian Welch
WHERE: Melting Point
WHEN: Thursday. November 30
HOW MUCH: $28
V )
hamburgers, french fries Si vegetarian food
TfllS WEEK'S SPECIALS:^ JrV
currigd pumpkin $oup $ i .v^*
CURRIFD PUmPKin 50UP
nOV€mB€R SALAD
HAVAR-TJ GRILL€D Cb€€$€
MAVARTl' Cfi€€$€6URG€R
GRILLGD TURH€Y
CR-AnUUICH
* * . ■
RASPB6RRY L€monAD€
APPL€ CID€R MOT/COLD
€GG HOG
ujc now Hove
„T€RRAPin AL€S,
00 DRAFT
GIFT C€RTIFICAT€$ ADD T-$HIRT$ FOR $AL€
259 wen UIA$HIflGTOn $TR€€T • 706-548-9175
U$ OflLine AT UJWW.CLOCh€D.U$
fion
SALON
COLOR. CUTS. WAXING
NEWS ft FEATURES I ARTS ft EVENTS I MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS ft ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS
NOVEMBER 29,2006 • FLAGP0LE.COM 29