Track Listing

1. Revelator
2. My First Lover
3. Dear Someone
4. Red Clay Halo
5. April the 14th, Pt. 1
6. I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll
7. Elvis Presley Blues
8. Ruination Day, Pt. 2
9. Everything Is Free
10. I Dream a Highway

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2154 in Music
• Released on: 2003-06-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The considerable promise carried forth on Gillian Welch's first two albums is thoroughly fulfilled on Time (The Revelator). Welch has traded the guidance of her previous producer, T-Bone Burnett, for the sympathetic studio skills of her longtime guitarist-harmony singer David Rawlings, who loosens the reins just enough to allow moments of spontaneity to sparkle within the duo's spare, eloquent playing. "Revelator" is an instant classic, perhaps the first great American folk song of the 21st century. "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" is three minutes of Louvins/Everlys-style bliss. "April the 14th, Part 1" haunts its historical context with an achingly melancholy melody. It all leads up to the epic 14-minute "I Dream a Highway", one of the finest closing tracks ever put on record. --Peter Blackstock

CD Description
Third album from this 'new bluegrass' artist who acted as producer for the Coen Brothers 'O Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack as well as contributing to Ryan Adams first solo album 'Heartbreaker'. 'Time (The Revelator)' displays a stronger blues and gospel influence than her previous outings. Alsofeatures her long time musical partner David Rawlings.

Customer Reviews

Destined to be one of the all-time great albums
I'm a bit of a Johnny-come-lately where Gillian Welch (and Dave Rawlings) are concerned. I saw Joan Baez at the Summer Sundae in Leicester last year and then some live performances on TV. When I bought her last album 'Dark Chords on a Big Guitar' I found that two of my favourite songs were written by Gillan Welch, who I'd vaguely recalled from seeing a concert (on TV again) by people involved with the soundtrack of 'O Brother, where art thou?'. So I took the plunge and bought this.

I've been blown away by this CD and in my humble opinion the only other album that this can compared it to is Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks' and I say that as someone who has listened regularly to that particular album for over thirty years.

It has that same stripped down simple instrumentation and haunting lyrical edge. I wont do a song by song comparison but to me 'Madame George' and 'I Dream A Highway' inhabit the same musical space and share the same atmosphere. Both artists were not confined by the length of the track or the obscure, oblique and repetitive nature of the lyrics, sang over very simple guitar chords with a minmum of musical ornamentation.

I was fortunate enough to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Cambridge Folk Festival and if anything they're even more personal and intense playing live. If and when they come back to the UK and you like their music make sure you see them.

A really great album
I discovered Gillian Welch purely by chance, hearing a minute or two of her music on a TV show about modern female 'country' artists. I was amazed at what I heard, wrote down her name, and went out and bought some of her material, including this. It's one of the best CDs I've bought in the past two or three years. And primarily being a rock music fan and musician, who never buys 'country' music, that surely indicates that Welch goes way beyond the constraints of any particular format.

As other reviewers have noted, it's a very stripped-down sound, almost reminding me of early Dylan. I find her, similarly, a rather enigmatic artist, and the last song on the album is unusually long, very much the sort of thing that Bob Dylan sometimes goes for. But there's humour in it, too, it's not all serious stuff. And that was also a classic characteristic of Dylan's early work.

Despite the rather basic two-instrument plus one (or two) voice line-up seeming a bit restrictive, in practice it isn't restrictive at all. In fact, I think it's an advantage. Each song has its own musical character, and that's because Welch (and friend!) are highly creative, and don't need to alter the instruments etc to get variation in their overall sound. They've got plenty to say, and they don't run out of ideas. Gillian Welch is surely a major 'find' who deserves a much higher profile, and I'm sure she'll get it. In a somewhat unusual move, the CD includes a 'live' track, which sits very well with the studio numbers. A great album!

Simply one of the best recordings ever made
In the same way that it's impossible to classify Miles Davis as 'jazz' because evrything abt his music bursts out of the confines of that label, so it is with Welch - & especially with this album - to call it country or folk or bluegrass or whatever would be to do it an injustice. Quite simply this album is unique - there is nothing like it to be found anywhere - even her other recordings don't come close. It's possible to find adjectives like sincere, intelligent, dark, soft, brooding but somehow they don't do Revelator justice - one needs bigger words like truth & perfection & timeless to come close to giving an impression of how this now famous recording affects. Just two acoustic guitars & two voices - but two very different people - Welch is laid back, 'late' on the note & very feminine whereas David Rawlings has an aggitated masculine urgency which Welch embraces & controls beautifully to produce songs with real underlying tension - nothing middle-of-the-road abt this - in fact this recording reveals more abt true feminist politics than anything else I've come across - this album reveals how women will save the world.