Gillian Welch - Hell Among the Yearlings (11 tracks) +Album Reviews

New Favorite!!!!!!

Peaceful Phoebe | Plumas Lake, CA | 05/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I never new of Gillian Welch until I went to a concert in Berkeley,CA recently. She blew me away!!! This amazing vocalist and musician was by far one of the best I have ever heard. She brings so many emotions with her music.The instruments are soulfinding. Her voice is unbelievable. A must have for anyone who appreciates heartfelt, beautiful music."

Critics Can Be Insane

K. Fleming | 02/12/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love all of my Gillian Welch CDs. However, I just recently looked at the Wikipedia page for her. And I must say I was appalled by the negative comments she has received in the press. Mercifully the excerpts on Wikipedia were brief, but as a thinking person who appreciates the positively brilliant music of "Gillian Welch" (with Dave Rawlings, playing and singing along) I felt compelled to defend her music. Music that asks intelligent questions about existence. Songs which sound hauntingly beautiful as well. Except for the songs that totally rock out.

Quickly, it has been said that she should write about what she has experienced in her own life. What, breakfast? Gimme a break! Much of her music is entirely confessional. I don't imagine every situation that she writes happened to her. She's an artist. She imagines. She borrows. She honors experiences that have happened to others. (In "Miner's Refrain" she sings that she is down in a hole: who hasn't felt that way? And if you have never felt that way, this is not the band for you.) The feelings expressed in the lyrics are ENTIRELY personal. It's one of the elements that drew me to the musical experience that is "Gillian Welch."

In singing so directly, so openly, so raw, she and Dave Rawlings transcend the personal and tap into the entire human experience.

Oh and their guitar playing is great too."

Modern "Old-Time" and "New Grass" Meets the Blues

Sherri | Trinity County, CA, USA | 12/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heard of Gillian Welch through the "O Brother" movie and soundtrack (one of the "sirens"), and began to listen to cuts off some of her CDs. At first, I didn't listen to this one because her other CDs had higher ratings overall in the reviews. But, when I decided to listen, I was immediately hooked. I bought the CD and haven't been disappointed in the least. As a matter of fact, this one grows on me the more I hear it. Gillian has a "lazy" style on this that is perfect for those moody-weather days (or any others for that fact). She combines "old-time", "new grass" and "blues-flavor" in a modern, acoustic (except for one song) fashion that is addictive. I hope she does more work like this CD!"

Once Again, She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain

Alfred Johnson | boston, ma | 08/30/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The bulk of this review has also been used to review Gillian Welch's "Revival". The points made there aplly here as well. Although that effort was slightly superior than the CD reviewed here.

*******

The Carter Family, Maybelle and Sara Carter, June Carter Cash, Jean Ritchie and so on. What they all have in common is that they form part of the line of our common mountain music heritage. I am sure that there are others whom I could have included without doing an injustice but I wanted to make this point. Just as the folk revivalists of the 1960's searched for roots musicians (once they knew they were still alive and kicking and waiting, just waiting, for a second chance) to emulate and then extend those musical traditions today there is a need for develop a new generation of mountain music singers. That task has been made infinitely easier by the emergence over the past decade or so of Gilliam Welch in order to keep this mournful mountain music alive. This CD under review, "Revival", from 1996 is my prima facie case for that last statement.

I do not, honestly, know the details of this singer's background although I have heard that she is from some upscale background in California. And that is the rub here. Before I knew that information, whether it is true or not, I would have sworn on that proverbial stack of bibles that she was from the hills and hollows of Harlan County, Kentucky or somewhere nearby. That gives her plenty of credibility in my circles. What gives her more, much more is her voice and her song selection as she goes through the mountain women's litany of troubles: not enough money, two many kids, a hard-drinking, two- fisted man who takes out his frustrations on ... well you know the rest. And then there are the songs of lost, like "Orphan Girl" (the first song of Ms. Welch's that I ever heard), longing and, of course, out in those lonely hills facing an inscrutable god, death. Stand outs here are the gruesome "Caleb Meyer" and the soulful "Miner's Refrain". Welcome to the mountain music tradition."

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	Gillian Welch Hell Among the Yearlings Genres: Country, Folk, Pop, Rock Track Listings (11) - Disc #1 Caleb Meyer Good Til Now The Devil Had a Hold of Me My Morphine One Morning Miner's Refrain Honey Now I'm Not Afraid to Die Rock of Ages Whiskey Girl Winter's Come and Gone Second album from the melancholic folk revivalist from 1998. Produced by T. Bone Burnett. Acony Records.
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