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 | Title : Time (The Revelator)
Author : Gillian Welch
Release Date : 20010731
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $16.98
Amazon.com Price : $13.29
(22
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Editorial Reviews :
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 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.
Buyer Reviews :
Gillian Welch has seen her star rise significantly in 2001 thanks to her contributions to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the most unexpected critical & commercial juggernaut of the past few years, her own album has made little impact on the marketplace and has been suspiciously absent from numerous best-of lists that have begun popping up. This is a shame because Time (The Revelator) is a sprawling, intimate, foreboding, sexy and weird-as-hell masterwork.
Revival and Hell Among The Yearlings proved Gillian Welch & David Rawlings were master class songwriters and that Welch was blessed with a hauntingly beautiful and evocative singing voice. Yet one major complaint directed towards both these albums was that they revealed little of the songwriters' inner lives. Not that we were asking for a breakfast-to-bed account of their daily business or who they sleep with, but something to hang their songs on so that they would be more than just brilliant exercises in neo traditionalism. It was apparent that they understood rural American music better than any academic in the country, but hadn't managed to internalize their craft just yet. What makes The Stanley Brothers' Rank Strangers unforgettable is that we believe Ralph & Carter lived that character's harrowing isolation. We believe that Skip James is someone who would rather be the Devil than be that woman's man.
This is where Welch & Rawlings get things stunningly right on this album. Songs like Revelator, My First Lover, Dear Someone, Red Clay Halo and Elvis Presley Blues come to life in a way that their earlier work, amazing as it was, just didn't. Songwriter and song are a cohesive whole and the results are that this is by far their best album and promises to be one in a long string of grand works. Sweetening the deal is the newfound boldness in the writing. April The 14th Part I and Ruination Day Part II take us into strange, wonderful places we are not used to going to. A small time punk rock band, Lincoln's assassination, the sinking of the Titanic and the Okies fleeing all congeal into one jaw-dropping narrative.
The entire record manages to effortlessly balance the contemporary and the timeless in a way that few can. Nothing in these songs sound like mannered recreations of a Mississippi John Hurt session and yet, by the same token, no concessions were made to 'modernize' the sound. It just works. And works beautifully.
Song for song, Time (The Revelator) is as strong an album as you will ever find, highlighted by the 14 min. closer I Dream A Highway. This is an endlessly rewarding work of art that will never cease showing you new things to admire in it. And the best part is that it looks like it is only the beginning.
(by Zayne Reeves)
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