773 Gillian Welch - Revival (1996)

 773 Gillian Welch - Revival (1996)

Studio Album - Americana




About the Act:

Gillian Welch is an American singer/songwriter, born in NY but "from" Nashville, Tennessee. Her music is a mixture of Country, Bluegrass and related folky/traditional stuff. Her first album came out in 1996 and she has released 5 since.

About the Album:

This was her debut album.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

Years ago, the Coen Brothers made a film set in historical America called O Brother Where Art Thou. I saw it and loved it. One of the things I loved about it was the soundtrack, which featured what was called in the film "Old Timey Music" - a kind of blend of Appalachian Mountain music, Bluegrass and Church music - not black gospel but I guess white gospel. Through this I discovered Alison Krauss, a Bluegrass singer with a great voice, who featured on three of the songs. I have some Alison Krauss albums, and she is both one of the few Country Music artists that I find acceptable, and my first exploration into Bluegrass (which has quite a lot in common with Celtic Folk). 

Gillian Welch, and some of the songs on this album reminded me of that Old Timey stuff, and of Alison Krauss. I listened to it twice before I looked her up. Oh look, she was on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack too, singing alongside Alison on two tracks, one of which also had Emmylou Harris on it. There are songs on this album that are really slap-bang in this style, especially "By The Mark" which is a Christian song about heaven. The rest of the tracks have stylistic similarities, over a range of things, but verging on the country.

Country is a style where I struggle. It is true that there are notable exceptions that I have found, Country artists who I find not only acceptable but enjoyable. Mainly, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash, but there will be others. In some ways it is like Rap to me - outside my comfort zone and a lot of it I find unenjoyable, but for different reasons. Listening to this album, I was thinking about what is it I tend to dislike about Country.

Well, number 1 is overly nasal singing. It is an affected thing, and I don't know why people do it, but it tends to annoy me. Some English Folk (especially more "pure" folk from the 70s and 80s), Metallica, and Country. 

However, number 2, which I think can be taken more seriously, is the tendency for Country music to be overly emotionally manipulative. Every genre can have songs that make you cry, but so much of Country demands to make you cry, piling on the misery, in an attempt to make hardened American Truckers feel something. It's like Disney and their tendency to kill mothers (Bambi, Dumbo) and to pile on the emotional cues like thickly-spread butter on your bread. Evidence, if you will, The Deck of Cards, and No Charge (two of the worst). I prefer when songs just present you with something more honest and less like a commercial for a water charity (poor Maria has to walk 32 miles every day just to get a cupful of dirty water).

So when this album started with Orphan Girl, I immediately took against it. By The Mark is as bad, and some of the others suffer from this a bit. That's the big strike against it.

There is a lot in its favour though. Gillian can sing, clear and ringing, again similar to Alison Krauss. While the music does occasionally include pedal steel guitar (a sure symptom of Country), it is more based on picked acoustic guitar, and the occasional slide resophonic guitar (I cannot be bothered to explain that right now, look up Dobro if you really want to know). The music is incredibly simple, and the arrangements are incredibly simple, because they are all about being a vehicle for the songs. In this it is well-produced and restrained, in a way that seemed to emerge in Americana music about this time, with a warmth and sonic depth that can be quite appealing.

So, I have mixed feelings about it. I was less irritated by it on the second listen, maybe because it was a second listen, maybe because it was on a better sound system (my car rather than through my phone's speaker). I can't quite bring myself to give it a 7 out of 10 though.

6.8/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2rQnb3cAjCW49K3sA7xaep

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3U74zdtX_iMX_YLfnsSBx1zOyFKseqIO

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Gillian_Welch_album)



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