In today’s music news – new audio equipment! After many years futzing with a dubious pre-amp, today I bought a new record player with one built in. I landed in ‘middle quality’ but good enough for my purposes. I am an audiophile to a point, but I’m also a realist about the level of sound I can achieve in my condo, and I only play records about three times a year, so there’s that.
Of much greater excitement, after many years of searching today I also found a new multi-disc CD player! Huzzah! This, plus learning that “the kids” over in England are busy playing CDs again and my time may be coming around again. Or not. Either way, I can once again spin multiple discs in the “random but not the whole music collection” kind of way I love and cherish.
Speaking of old school, here’s a review of some traditional Americana folk music.
Disc 1694 is…Soul Journey
Artist: Gillian Welch
Year of Release: 2003
What’s up with the Cover? Some childlike drawings. I like the teal colour of the background but otherwise I prefer my album art to look like it was drawn by adults.
How I Came To Know It: I had a deep dive into Gillian Welch many years ago, and this is one of the resulting finds.
How It Stacks Up: I have five Gillian Welch albums, with “Soul Journey” coming in at #3.
Rating: 4 stars
Gillian Welch is one of those artists that mainstream radio may have never heard of but is fundamental to the understanding of the modern Americana and indie folk movements. If you love that kind of music from any number of current artists, there is a very good chance, bordering on inevitability, that those artists cut their teeth listening to Gillian Welch records.
There’s a simple reason for this: Welch is the best. Vocally, she hearkens back hundreds of years into the tradition of storytelling that is folk music, steeped in the rich and earthy delivery that evokes backcountry mountain hollers of rural America. Her voice is big and resonant, and Welch is able to pull it back or let it blast, effortlessly moving in and out of quietness and full power. This style should be emptying her lung capacity every half bar or so, but she sings with a seeming inexhaustible amount of breath and blow.
Accompanying Welch as always is her co-writer and guitar guru husband David Rawlings. Rawlings sprung guitar stylings are unique in their own right and their ebb and flow is a natural fit to Welch’s vocals.
As for “Soul Journey” is comes as the fourth and latest of her early career and presents a softer and more rounded production than previous efforts. The discordance is still there to serve the stories, but the playing is more relaxed and lilting than anything prior. I like Welch both ways, and this slight shift did not detract from the quality of the experience.
The album opens with “Look at Miss Ohio,” a gorgeous character study of a woman who is likely the belle of her town, and much more complicated than most casual observers of her beauty will ever understand. The song is dripping with rich imagery, none better than the opening stanzas:
“Oh me oh my oh,
look at Miss Ohio
She's a-running around with her rag-top down
She says I want to do right but not right now”
Miss Ohio is a rugged and troubled beauty, and Welch captures her restless and troubled soul to perfection. The song’s tune is a weary meander that perfectly underscores it all.
Another favourite is “Wayside/Back in Time” with a light and easy mid-tempo sway, and a refrain with a melody so perfect I was humming it in the hallways at work for days, unable to get it out of my head, and uninterested in trying.
All of the songs are co-written with Rawlings, with the exception of “One Little Song” where Welch demonstrates she is more than capable of writing a classic folk song all on her own. “One Little Song” is a love song to the creative process, where songs are birds waiting to be wooed and gently observed and put to paper. The song wonders if there are any new songs to be written, even as it demonstrates that hell yes, there sure are.
I like when folk records tackle a traditional tune, and on “Soul Journey” we get a take on “Make Me A Pallet on Your Floor”. I have other versions of this by Lucinda Williams and the Stray Birds, and while those are good, Welch’s is head and shoulders better. The gold standard on how to take a very old song, honour its bones, and still make it your own. Best line of this classic “down and out’ rumination:
“Been hangin’ round
with good time friends of mine
They treat me very
nice and kind, when I’ve got a dollar and a dime.”
Brilliant, and set to a bluesy refrain and Rawlings incomparable guitar work it just doesn’t get any better.
In most artists discographies, “Soul Journey” would be the best record the artist ever created. In Welch’s incredible body of work it can only land third, but don’t be fooled; this record is a classic must-have collection of Americana folk music.
Best tracks: Look at Miss Ohio, Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor, Wayside/Back in Time, Lowlands, One Little Song
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