By F. Daniel Kent
5 stars out of 5
Let’s get one thing clear first off. While it is true The Harrow and the Harvest is eight years in coming since the last “Gillian Welch” album Soul Journey, this is hardly a “comeback album”. Seriously, album sales aside Ms. Welch has hardly been idle or absent from the scene. She and long term collaborator David Rawlings have been touring relentlessly in the interim and recorded the Rawlings fronted Dave Rawlings Machine while Welch collaborated with The Decembrists on eight of the eleven songs on their latest album. So, let’s dispense of this comeback talk, shall we? It’s so déclassé.
So, it’s been eight years. Times have changed. We have a new president who is black. The war in Iraq has ceased. The economy has tanked and is slowly recovering. And Americana music, once a sub-sub-sub genre of country at best or the bastard child of folk at worst has garnered such attention as to attract a Grammy category all its own. All that change and the dulcet sounds of Gillian Welch have remained the same while evolving significantly in tandem. Welch claimed a lack of good songwriting as the reason she took such a long time to put out this album. I must admit that eight years is a bit of a long time to wait between albums, but the quality of this release fully justifies the wait. Welch and Rawlings take you on a ride through their musical playground where every character has a story left untold, the songs’ lyrics barely scratching the surface of their often dark and sordid lives. The best storytellers leave you wanting more and there is more aplenty to be had on The Harrow & the Harvest as each question answered spawns three more questions.
The story begins with the pseudo art deco cover art casting Welch as a transcendent nature goddess whose hand is seemingly engulfed in flame. A coy Rawlings with an enormous owl perched on his shoulder whispers slyly in Welch’s ear with his hand cupped around his mouth as a large match burns aflame in his other hand. The artwork evokes a strong sense of tradition and powerful connection with rural life while evoking a modern feel that invites the new to coexist with the old - a striking juxtaposition carrying throughout the album.
Opening the album is the relatively jaunty “Scarlet Town,” which could easily have been on Time: The Revelator or even Friend of a Friend telling a dark story involving a deep well, a love gone wrong and a telescope from Hell to Scarlet Town. The song has all the extraordinary elements of their work including the dueling guitars and uptempo picking that typifies many of the darker Kentucky death reel inspired murder ballads Welch revels in.
However, if listeners expected to hear another hour full of this then Welch pulled a brilliant fake out as “Dark Turn of Mind” turns the volume down a notch with a sparse and stark environment of pulled back instrumentation and whispered lyrics of a protagonist who despite her best attempts can “still hear the shadows calling”. While the message seems to be embracing the darkness and the night, the subtle picking and swooning vocals evoke an almost lullaby like effect lulling the listener to sway along, eyes closed in concentration. After that it just gets more and more interesting and hypnotic.
I could go track by track on this album and tell you why it is perfect in every way, but you really need to get it and listen for yourself. From the Neil Young inspired “The Way It Will Be” to the instant Americana standards “Hard Times” and “Silver Dagger” which summon forth a feel aligned close to the iconic stature of earlier Welch hits such as “Orphan Girl” or “Elvis Presley Blues,” Welch and Rawlings have created what will long be considered a must-have of the genre. This is the way Americana – or any musical endeavor for that matter - should be done: with all the dedication to the combination of craft, message and music one can summon forth and then 10% more for good measure. Long considered a modern master of the genre, Welch demonstrates with this recording that she has to chops to fill those shoes with pride.
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