Sublime harmonies to the fore

Shane Gilchrist presents a Summer Times selection of albums worth exploring.

Today: Folk-country troubadour Gillian Welch strips back her sound for The Harrow & The Harvest.

Who: Born in 1967, Gillian Welch sometimes sounds as if she has been around a whole lot longer, her road-weary voice and narrative lyricism evoking American dustbowl-era images.

With longtime partner Dave Rawlings, Welch has released five albums, contributed to the popular O'Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack and, along the way, won both awards and admirers.

About the album: Eight years after Soul Journey, Welch has returned with an album steeped in traditional country and folk. With Rawlings, she throws down guitar, banjo, harmonica and an honesty that reaffirms the beauty found in simple things done well.

Although it boasts Welch's name, this effort is a tight-knit collaboration: songwriting credits and instrumental duties are shared.

To the fore are sublime vocal harmonies, which, though skewed to give Welch's voice prominence, offer more than a few echoes of Rawlings' 2009 solo album, A Friend Of A Friend.

Highlight: The Way It Goes.

For those who like: T. Bone Burnett, Emmylou Harris.

 

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