The Harrow And The Harvest By Gillian Welch

You pretty much know what your are going to get when you see the name “Gillian Welch” down the spine of a CD case. Her name is pretty much synonymous with pure, unfiltered and genuine Appalachian folk. Haunting songs with stripped down arrangements and lush harmonies that recall the desperation and hope of a nation rebuilding itself after the dustbowl era.

Welch’s music, although billed as the product of just one person, are in fact the sum of two equally important components. Her acoustic guitar and rich breathy voice, with vocal harmonies and intricate leads provided by guitar virtuoso David Rawlings. The two have stuck loosely to this formula over the years, without sounding like or sharing the stage with any one else.

With their newest effort The Harrow and the Harvest, their first album together in eight years under the name “Gillian Welch,” Welch and Rawlings approach each of the ten songs with the same amount of depth and passion as their earlier releases. Perhaps their most stripped down affair since 1996’s Revival , the album’s arrangements consist of the duo’s interlocking guitar parts and pitch perfect bluegrass harmonies, all with delicate attention given with David Rawling’s stark production work.

The only other accompaniment on the album comes from Rawling’s muted claw hammer banjo and a few knee-slaps and hand-claps sprinkled here and there. The album feels like it should; like two friends getting together to create timeless songs that could easily be mistaken for songs that belong to America’s greater folk catalogue.

For the record, I could listen to Gillian Welch deliver me a sentence of 25 years to life in prison and I would still be overjoyed. Her voice is so full of personality and depth, and on The Harrow and the Harvest her molasses soaked vocal chords cement her as one of the best and most distinguished vocalists around. It is a serene instrument, and partially the reason why Welch and Rawlings keep their arrangements the way they are; uncluttered and serving only to give each number the right amount of push behind their lucid harmonies.

On the chilling banjo ballad “Hard Times,” Welch offers a vocal performance that leaves the listener numb when heard through head phones. A triumphant moment and possibly one of the best songs she has ever recorded. As she sings the refrain “Hard-times ain’t gonna rule my mind no more” over Rawling’s delicate banjo, you could easily relate her sentiment to the great depression of the 1930’s as well as our nation’s current economic turmoil.

“Hard Times” is not the only standout the album has to offer, songs like “Tennessee” and “The Way it Will Be” offer the same quality that long-time fans have been accustomed to and reason to rejoice after such a long break between releases. Attributing her absence to a bad case of writers block, the songs on The Harrow and the Harvest truly benefit from the time they have taken to percolate prior to reaching the public. This collection is as focused and moving as any of her previous records and as timeless as any in the American Folk landscape.