Review | Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
It’s been some eight years since Gillian Welch has released an album. So this past month’s The Harrow and the Harvest is long awaited, and to state it simply: well worth it.
As one of the most well-recognized names in americana, bluegrass and folk, it’s a bit surprising that Welch didn’t grow up in the south or listen to folk or bluegrass until later in her life. Born in New York City, she moved to California with her adoptive parents, and first listened to Dylan and Guthrie in high school. At UC Santa Cruz, Welch played in a psychadelic surf band and a goth band before her roommate played some bluegrass in their room and Welch was instantly hooked.
She met guitarist Dave Rawlins while attending
Berklee College of Music here in Boston and soon moved to Nashville for one reason: because all of the best music she knew was recorded there.
And Nashville was
the perfect fit. On The Harrow and The Harvest, there is plenty of imagery in the songwriting that pertains to life in the south. There’s Welch’s ode to her home in Tennessee and the sauntering Down Along The Dixie Line which describes life on the line perfectly: “Banjos are strumming, horseflies are humming, ripe melons on the vine, the gold and the grey weeds, saying look away, way down along the Dixie Line.”
If sung by some other twangy country star, many of these lyrics might sound a bit cheesy. “That’s the way the cornbread crumbles, that’s the way the
whole thing ends,” Welch croons in The Way The Whole Thing Ends. But for Welch, it’s simple and honest songwriting. And it works.
And while Welch paints the perfect picture of life in Tennesee, her words truly carry a sense of ‘anywhere’. In the simple closing track That’s The Way The Whole Thing Ends, Welch sings “standing in the backdoor crying, now you wanna be my friend.” In the next verse, it’s “now you’re gonna need a friend,” and by the end of the song, it’s “now here you come alone and crying. Once, you know, you were my friend.” It’s life
that could happen anywhere.
This is one of the best, and simply beautiful albums of the year. Hopefully it won’t be another eight years before we hear from Welch again. But if it is, we probably shouldn’t care much. After all, that’s the way the cornbread crumbles.
For those lucky folks with Saturday tickets to Newport Folk Fest, you can catch Welch on the Fort Stage at 4:45 p.m. Don’t miss it!
