Album Reviews

Gillian Welch's fourth album originally released in 2003 on CD-only finally gets an AAA release, cut by Stephen Marcussen on the Ortofon VMS-80 cutting system Welch and partner Dave Rawlings bought and restored. Now that's progress!

It's an intensely melancholic album that does not shift mood for even one song. If you enjoy getting down in the deep weeds of sadness and regret you'll have a party. I did. While two songs are traditional, the subject matter of the others is contemporary, though the music is deeply embedded "rootsy" Americana played mostly on acoustic instruments.

To put an exclamation point on the proceedings, the closer, "Wrecking Ball" (about a "little Deadhead" who let her grades slip and loses her scholarship), brings in electricity and a full band. The opener, Welch's popular "Look at Miss Ohio" about a fallen beauty queen sounds the same theme, though it would be a mistake to hear these songs as tragedies.

Perhaps this all analog release comes in part now because with their own lathe the Rawlings-Welch team can finally hear this as they wish you to, but it's also possible that the album's deeply felt despondent musical mood and subject matter well matches for many the national mood—though of course these are personal not political songs about wrong turns, missed opportunities and twists of fate. If Welch and Rawlings were interested in a matching protest song they could have included Malvina Reynolds' "What Have They Done to the Rain?" but that's the opposite of what's intended here.

Welch's evocative, deeply felt vocalizing is perfect throughout as are the mostly acoustic backings with Welch and Rawlings joined by Mark Ambrose (guitar), Jim Boquist (bass guitar), Ketcham Secor (fiddle), and the ever present (it seems) Greg Leisz (dobro).

Once the mood is set on the opener and you are "there", you'll happily remain fixed in emotional space for both sides, not even breaking mood to get up and turn the record over. It's a performance that I swear only an AAA vinyl record can produce. And when it's finished you'll know you've been somewhere, heard and felt felt some things that will remain with you for quite some time and affect you for all time. "Look at Miss Ohio" has been running around my brain for days now!

Maybe Dave Rawlings was punking me when he called to say he was sending this heretofore available only on CD 2003 recording and sounding somewhat apologetic about the sound quality. Or maybe we hear it differently—not that it matters. This was recorded in three venues: their own Woodland Studios (built by the late Glenn Snoddy, inventor of the "fuzz tone" and a place with a rich sonic history), RCA Studio B (do you need an introduction?) and 'at home'. To my ears the recording is as perfect as the performances, so in my world this gets the rare 11 for music and sound. Maybe I'm wallowing. I guess I sure like to wallow! Nice gatefold packing, and "Tip on" jacket. A record you'll treasure.