Love List: Gillian Welch
For this instalment, we will hand the aux cord to Gillian Welch. She’s an American singer-songwriter who performs and writes with her musical partner, David Rawlings. Together the pair have released critically acclaimed albums and won a couple of Grammys along the way.
Their music fuses the sounds of Americana, bluegrass, folk and more. This has culminated in a sound that is equally familiar and new. Whether it be a sparse acoustic ballad or a band-backed epic, their music explores dark themes around social outcasts, struggling against adversity.
Listen now to the folk tracks that have this Americana star inspired, transfixed and fascinated.
“This is a funeral hymn that I learned from the 1935 Carter Family recording made in Bristol, Tennessee. But, folk music is meant to be played and changed and lived in. It needs to suit the moment. Here, the Staples Singers have made it suit another time and place.”