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TIME (THE REVELATOR)
Gillian Welch
(Acony Records)
The sound of stripped-down, acoustic folk-bluegrass music doesn't get much finer than when delivered by Welch and her longtime musical partner and boyfriend David Rawlings.
Still, this 10-song collection doesn't quite match the gripping if sombre heights of Welch's 1998 release, Hell Among The Yearlings, which made my Top 10 list that year.
After having T Bone Burnett behind the console for her last two albums, Welch and Rawlings produced this time, working in the legendary RCA studio B in Nashville where Elvis once recorded.
Despite picking up the banjo again -- an instrument she first learned for Hell -- on the new song My First Lover, Welch seldom flexes her musical muscles.
Instead, she and Rawlings stick with their tried-and-true two-guitar-and-harmony approach.
Standouts here include the dreamy, slow waltz Dear Someone and the powerful laments April The 14th Part I and Ruination Day Part 2, which document the day the great dust bowl storm hit, the Titanic sank and Lincoln was assassinated. Other standouts: The one lively live track, I Want To Sing That Rock And Roll, and the sad, soul-searching Everything Is Free and I Dream A Highway, which clocks in at a whopping 15 minutes. (More on: Gillian Welch).
Track Listing
1. Revelator
2. My First Lover
3. Dear Someone
4. Everything Is Free
5. Elvis Presley Blues
6. I Want To Sing That Rock And Roll
7. April 14th, Part I
8. Ruination Day, Part II
9. Red Clay Halo
10. I Dream A Highway