Gillian Welch - Soul Journey
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Free Music Notes for Soul Journey
Free Music Review: Here's to more robust arrangements!
Hit: 4 Stars
Welch returns here to larger ensemble arrangements, and happily so! While there are still a couple of barren acoustic tracks here, Welch and Rawlings turn back to the highly successful style of Revival. The production on this album is superb. They're putting their Berklee education to good use here!Free Music Review: the real thing
Hit: 5 Stars
There is pop music, there is pop country, there is country, and then there is Gillian Welch. Her sound has developed and changed but never disappoints. If you're a fan of Catlin Cary or Katheleen Edwards, of Emilou Harris or Patty Griffin, of Lucinda Williams or Iris DeMent then add this one to your collection. It's quiet enough for a slow, summer evening and poignant enough to make you forget that there's anything else to do but sit and listen.Free Music Review: A Step Forward
Hit: 4 Stars
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings step forward with yet another great album of original music showcasing their fresh and original synthesis of the elements of old time, blues, bluegrass, and country music. New instrumentation, such as fiddles and drums, are added unobtrusively but effectively to flesh out the spare and uncluttered arrangements, especially as compared to the minimalist "Revelator" album of last outing. I agree with the prior reviewer who effectively said this album reveals itself through repeated listenings - soon you'll be humming along with "Miss Ohio", "Wayside/Back in Time" and "One Monkey". If you're a fan, buy it. Hard core fans may note a diminished role for Mr. Rawlings' harmony vocals and uniquely proficient and at times anarchic flatpicking, a marvel in itself, but his presence is felt elsewhere in the production values. And who reads Rolling Stone anyway.Free Music Review: Less IS more with Gillian Welch
Hit: 4 Stars
I have been with Gillian Welch since the Revival CD and her subtle but haunting songs and voice have been a revelation to me. If anything Gillian Welch is subtle, she uses subtlety as a secret, or not so secret, weapon to get under the skin and into the heart and deeper, er, layers of the mind. Compared to her two previous releases Soul Journey is and even more scaled down affair with even sparser instrumentations and arrangements. Is this good or bad? The way I see it is that there are lots of places to go for "the other thing", beuatifully crafted and oppulent productions, so seeing that Gillian and mate David dare to go in the other direction is very refreshing.
Listening to these songs are all about focusing on the simple truths, the beauty of Gillian's voice, the guitar tone, the snare drum hit that feels so present, so close to you, that you are continously overwhelmed by the intimacy of the listening experience.
Gillian's voice has developed since Time (The Revelator). It has become darker, a bit more sinister, and less playful. If anyone remembers the playful Paper Wings from Revival, with it's great, and very corny lyrics and melody, with a nod to Patsy Cline, such songs are absent from Soul Journey. But Gillian Welch is never sobbingly sad. She sings the songs like stories that have to be told with a remarkable quiet insistency.
I am very impressed with the production, the general sound of the CD. It sounds as if the production team (David and Gillian I presume) have used all the vintage gear they could lay their hands on, but married it with modern technology where that is appropriate (such as releasing on CD and not on vinyl). The sound combined with the sparse arrangements add up to an overall sound that leaves the confines of the stereo and grabs your senses as if they were actually in the room there with you. This is a remarkable development form Gillian's earlier CD, that were well produced, but, er, not on this CD's remarkable level.
So what more could one ask for? Not much, really. But I sense that the musical and lyrical universe Gillian Welch has explored is maybe in need for something new, some new angle and a fresh perspective, in the future. A songwriter like Bob Dylan has written about the same subjects for forty years but his language and metaphores have changed constantly. I hope Gillian Welch will NOT sit back and enjoy the ride now. I hope she will keep on searching her soul and dare to really surprise us with her next CD. Don't worry, we can take it. And may it be soon.
Free Music Review: Less IS more with Gillian Welch
Hit: 4 Stars
I have been with Gillian Welch since the Revival CD and her subtle but haunting songs and voice have been a revelation to me. If anything Gillian Welch is subtle, she uses subtlety as a secret, or not so secret, weapon to get under the skin and into the heart and deeper, er, layers of the mind. Compared to her two previous releases Soul Journey is and even more scaled down affair with even sparser instrumentations and arrangements. Is this good or bad? The way I see it is that there are lots of places to go for "the other thing", beuatifully crafted and oppulent productions, so seeing that Gillian and mate David dare to go in the other direction is very refreshing.
Listening to these songs are all about focusing on the simple truths, the beauty of Gillian's voice, the guitar tone, the snare drum hit that feels so present, so close to you, that you are continously overwhelmed by the intimacy of the listening experience.
Gillian's voice has developed since Time (The Revelator). It has become darker, a bit more sinister, and less playful. If anyone remembers the playful Paper Wings from Revival, with it's great, and very corny lyrics and melody, with a nod to Patsy Cline, such songs are absent from Soul Journey. But Gillian Welch is never sobbingly sad. She sings the songs like stories that have to be told with a remarkable quiet insistency.
I am very impressed with the production, the general sound of the CD. It sounds as if the production team (David and Gillian I presume) have used all the vintage gear they could lay their hands on, but married it with modern technology where that is appropriate (such as releasing on CD and not on vinyl). The sound combined with the sparse arrangements add up to an overall sound that leaves the confines of the stereo and grabs your senses as if they were actually in the room there with you. This is a remarkable development form Gillian's earlier CD, that were well produced, but, er, not on this CD's remarkable level.
So what more could one ask for? Not much, really. But I sense that the musical and lyrical universe Gillian Welch has explored is maybe in need for something new, some new angle and a fresh perspective, in the future. A songwriter like Bob Dylan has written about the same subjects for forty years but his language and metaphores have changed constantly. I hope Gillian Welch will NOT sit back and enjoy the ride now. I hope she will keep on searching her soul and dare to really surprise us with her next CD. Don't worry, we can take it. And may it be soon.