Time (The Revelator)

1	Revelator 6:22
2	My First Lover 3:47
3	Dear Someone 3:14
4	Red Clay Halo 3:14
5	April The 14th, Pt. 1 5:10
6	I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll 2:51
7	Elvis Presley Blues 4:53
8	Ruination Day, Pt. 2 2:36
9	Everything Is Free 4:48
10	I Dream A Highway 14:39

Barnes & Noble

With only their guitars, banjos, mandolins, voices, and original songs, Gillian Welch and her redoubtable collaborator, David Rawlings, have fashioned a powerful, labyrinthine, time warp of a record. This elegantly recorded duo takes its cue from mournful, Appalachian folk songs and folklore. But eerily enough, there's something uniquely contemporary here -- glistening flat-picking, air-brushed reverb on the bluesy guitar work, and lyrics that mine folk themes (love, commitment, and Faustian bargains made and then paid for dearly) with a poetic, modern cool. "Dear Someone" is a dreamy and romantic paean to a significant other; "My First Lover" is a tortured, regretful account of a night of drunken revelry; bright and bouncy, "The Red Clay Halo" features a sparkling Rawlings solo enlivening its narrator's assertion of the glory that awaits in Heaven. Rawlings's step-it-up-and-go guitar work on the live recording of "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" (taken from the Down from the Mountain collection) evokes the big beat even as his and Welch's close harmony singing conjures the spirit of the Louvin Brothers. "Elvis Presley Blues" is a lilting country blues meditation on the tragic price visionaries pay, ultimately finding a connection between the Hillbilly Cat and that hammerin' man of myth, John Henry. The Welch-Rawlings sound signature reaches its apex on the 14-minute album-closing epic, "I Dream a Highway." This deliberately paced, ambitious work seems to describe a hallucinatory journey that begins on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry and with each verse ascends further into the ether of imagination. Fevered lines such as "I'm an indisguisable shade of twilight" and "I'll take you as a viper into my head" (and another John Henry reference in the lyric "I want to die with a hammer in my hand") are offset by a wistful, refrain, "I dreamed a highway back to you," pulling the narrative back from the surreal. Time (The Revelator) could not be better titled: The secrets herein have to be dug out, and that takes a while. But the effort is well worth it. David McGee

All Music Guide

Gillian Welch's third album, Time (The Revelator), finds the folk vocalist and musician shifting her attention from achingly beautiful mountain ballads to achingly beautiful pop/rock ballads. Regarding this album, Welch states: "As opposed to being little tiny folk songs or traditional songs, they're really tiny rock songs. They're just performed in this acoustic setting. In our heads we went electric without changing instruments." This philosophy is most evident in songs like "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" and "Elvis Presley Blues," with her longtime collaborator David Rawlings accompanying her on Louvin-esque high harmonies and vintage guitar. Fans of the duo's neo-old-timey sound will be happy to hear a few of their familiar, intimate dust bowl folk songs peering through the fence posts. The banjo-driven "My First Lover" could've been recorded on Alan Lomax's back porch, while the title track aches and moans along with the best of her two previous albums. Rawlings' production on the album remains warm and intimate throughout, capturing the subtleties of the acoustic instruments and earthy harmonies. Highlights include the passionate romp "Red Clay Halo," which includes the best elements of time-honored folk stylings and their newfound passion for rock & roll, and the hushed awe that captures the audience in the Ryman Auditorium during the live recording of "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll." Time (The Revelator) ends with an unprecedented 15-minute track called "I Dream a Highway," which drifts lazily through the album's final moments, sweetly dozing in the current like Huck and Jim's Mississippi River afternoons. Welch and Rawlings are at the top of their form and continue to make the best Americana recordings without resorting to drenching their albums in guest stars, but by writing and performing heartfelt songs that speak with a clear and undeniable honesty. Zac Johnson