As the final night of the Edinburgh International Festival drew to a close, Gillian Welch, and her partner David Rawlings, delivered a 2 hour set that, at times, drew gasps of admiration from the audience. The finale especially, will live long in the memories of the 900, or so, lucky souls who packed the pews and aisles of this now converted church.
For their second encore, Welch and Rawlings pushed aside their microphones and played a breathtaking version of Lefty Frizzell’s “Nobody Knows But Me”. Ms. Welch said she wanted to use the intimate Queens Hall acoustic surroundings to its fullest potential. The crowd was deathly silent, as they hung onto every word, breath and note. If there was a dry eye in the house, it must have made of glass.
The two musicians strode on stage a little after 8:30 to huge applause from the older than average audience. I was especially pleased to see the trusty old banjo was in hand. Gillian was in her trademark outfit of sleeveless ranch girl dress and black cowboy boots, while Dave was looking dapper in his charcoal grey suit, looking every inch the lawman. All that was missing was that big shiny star of a badge.
Here to promote the new album, “Soul Journey”, their fourth release, they kicked straight into a stunning version of that album’s opening track “Look At Miss Ohio”. As the gig took place just after the anniversary of Elvis’s death, Gillian next gave us her tribute to The King, the delightful “Elvis Presley Blues” from third album “Time (The Revelator)”.
At first, there was little conversation from the shy self-effacing duo as they strolled through “Rock Of Ages”, “Dear Someone” and, a particular favourite of mine, “Annabelle”, which is taken from her first release, the 1996 Grammy nominated “Revival”. As Gillian and Dave were slowly warming to the appreciative audience, she introduced the next song with a chat about the Coen Brothers movie, “O Brother Where Art Thou”. This drew loud cheers from those in attendance, some of whom, I suspect, didn’t know Gillian’s work before the film was released. George Clooney has a lot to answer for! Of course, the song was the sing-a-long “I Want To Sing That Rock & Roll”.
The couple seemed to be more at ease after this point, jocularly conversing more and more, to the delight of Edinburgh public.
The beautiful version of the Carter Family song, “50 Miles Of Elbow Room” that followed, was an absolute treat. The first half of the gig was completed with “My Morphine”, her closest to a ‘hit single’ in this country, taken from her outstanding second album “Hell Among The Yearlings”. “One Monkey” followed, and then a stomping rendition of “Red Clay Halo”, which almost brought the house down. After just under an hour, the duo took a well-earned break.
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On their return, as they launched into “My First Lover”, Welch and Rawlings looked as if they were really enjoying themselves now. We certainly were. The autobiographical song “No One Knows My Name”, and the lovely “One Little Song”, both taken from the new album, quickly followed. It’s refreshing to see that, although here to promote “Soul Journey”, they decided to only play four songs from it.
Welch scaled new heights with “Revelator”, the title track of her last album, which in turn was followed by the religious “By The Mark”. This song sounds like it’s a thousand year old hymn that you’ve known forever. Even I, a self confessed atheist, would be queuing up at my local church if I could hear this every Sunday!
The jubilant crowd was then treated to a rare lead vocal performance from Rawlings as he took on a song I’m unfamiliar with. It might be called “On My Way Back To The Old Home”; then again, it might not! The two part harmonies we were being treated to were at times, almost celestial. With two more numbers, “Throw Me A Rose”, and the haunting “Caleb Meyer”, they were gone.
After a couple of minutes, the talented team reappeared for a well-deserved encore. “Orphan Girl”, which was covered by Emmylou Harris on her superb 1995 album, the Daniel Lanois produced, “Wrecking Ball”, is given a standing ovation, while the roof almost came off when the first notes of “I’ll Fly Away” were played. This song is obviously a favourite because of the “O Brother…” connection. Then, of course, came that extraordinary second encore. Quite magnificent.
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