Well, as far as Just
Backdated is concerned the odds and sods from Welch and Rawlings are considerably
more worthwhile than most artists’ greatest hits, and I’ve been listening to
this compilation for four days straight. Revival,
released without much fanfare in 1996, was and remains a hugely influential
record, the precursor to Americana, a kind of historical country genre that like
the songs on The Band’s first two albums exists outside of time, old but
new, traditional but contemporary, and definitely rural. Revival was a stunning debut from a couple who seemed to have
stepped out of the past; 10 peerless songs, every one of them perfectly formed, superbly
understated, mostly dark, always poignant. She even looked the part in her
calf-length dresses, pale countenance and unshowy flat hairstyle (though of late she's gone blonde with startling results). As I wrote in
a concert review of the duo some years ago (to all intents and purposes they are a
duo, in all but name), their songs are a throwback to the time of America’s
Great Depression, and are peopled by the dispossessed, migrants and orphans,
poor families with too many kids and simple folk who put their trust in God. In
a line or a few words Welch evokes hardship and period in the manner of John Steinbeck
and the photographer Dorothea Lange whose Migrant
Mother adorns a wall in our house.
All we’d heard from Gillian
Welch until Revival was the song
‘Orphan Girl’, covered by Emmylou Harris a year before the album was released.
Now probably Welch’s best known song (though ‘Elvis Presley Blues’ from Time (The Revelator), lately
impressively covered by Tom Jones, runs it a close second), ‘Orphan Girl’ appears
twice on Boots No 1, firstly an
alternative version without the slightly Twin
Peaks-doomy electric guitar that arrives late on the familiar version, and
also as a home demo. Welch’s vocal inflections are remarkably similar on all
three versions, setting the melancholic tone for almost all that follows.
Much the same applies to
the majority of the outtakes of tracks that appeared on Revival,
with Welch’s parts fairly consistent through the recording process while slight
variations in the guitar accompaniment, Rawlings’ contributions on choruses and
solos, and minor adjustments to the tempo and backdrop of songs offer an insight into their gestation.
Nevertheless, for those of us who consider Revival
to be the Sgt Pepper of Americana,
it’s fascinating to hear demos and early versions of songs we now know so well,
and to read about their development in the excellent sleeve notes. ‘Annabelle’,
in which a mother mourns the loss of her infant daughter in a ‘hard life of
tears’, appears to have been initially titled ‘Words On A Stone’; ‘Pass You
By’, of one Revival’s more strident tracks – and I use the term cautiously
– began at an easier pace with Jim Keltner’s shuffling drums more relaxed and
producer T Bone Walker contributing a bluesy solo; a stereo mix of ‘By The
Mark’ brings out the delicate counterpoint harmony between Welch and Rawlings on
the chorus; two versions of the sultry ‘Paper Wings’ show off Roy Husky on
stand up bass and Rawlings on pedal steel; and an early (1993) demo of ‘Tear My
Stillhouse Down’ lacks the full-on backdrop of the Revival take but shines through in its relative simplicity.
Of more interest,
though, are those songs previously unavailable, some of which the duo evidently performed on stage early in their career. On Disc 1, ‘Go On Downtown’, by the
prolific Texas songwriter and performer Robert Earl Keen, seems custom built
for Welch’s style, though the opposite is probably true in that Welch was
influenced by Keen’s style for Revival,
unhurried and lonesome, its syllables effortlessly stretched out; and ‘Georgia
Road’, a slow-paced 12-bar blues, purposeful and with some fine trilling on
the solo. Disc 2 offers many more surprises: ‘I Don’t Want To Go Downtown’ is
another mournful blues; ‘455 Rocket’ a toe-tapping rockabilly car song with a great James Burton-style
solo from Rawlings; ‘Dry Town’ a fabulous and witty original song in the style
of Johnny Cash, chugalong country with Rawlings offering a spot-on Luther Perkins
impression; ‘Riverboat Song’ an absolute gem, Just Backdated’s star choice from
the new songs, a gorgeous melody with lyrics about a great old river
that rolls along into the sea, lonely now that the river men and paddle steamers have gone, but still mighty, wide and liable to flood; and ‘Old Time Religion’, the traditional bible-thumping
gospel sing-along that evokes the congregation at some little ol’ wooden shack
of a church where its worshippers arrive in horse-drawn carriages.
In amongst these is that
second, pedal-steel driven ‘Paper Wings’ and the disc concludes with the
publishers’ demo of ‘Acony Bell’, Welch’s exquisite song about a wild flower,
after ‘Orphan Girl’ my favourite track on Revival,
and the song that gave its name to their personalised record label. All of
which means that you’ll have to look very hard to find music as charming, eloquent and
inspired as that on the second half of this second disc.
Gillian Welch's new look
Now all we need is a
brand new record, not to mention a few overdue British dates.
3 comments:
I was introduced to Welch in the form of 'My First Lover' & 'Elvis Presley Blues' by Nic Harcourt on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic a decade or so ago. Thank you for the headsup..I will now go off and seek this out :)
David Graham
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