Gillian Welch in Concert—In reality, it’s a shorthand for Gillian Welch & David Rawlings in Concert. Welch without Rawlings is yin without yang; Laurel without Hardy. Three standing ovations at the end of their November 28th two-hour concert at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts celebrated the musical beast with two fronts & two backs–Welch & Rawlings. (Still, their website and my Calvin ticket cast their brand as “Gillian Welch.”)
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| Flow gently their tears |
In their glass-is-half-empty aesthetic, Welch &Rawlings prove worthy descendants of John Dowland, the post-Elizabethan composer-singer-lutenist whose art exemplified his own dictum: “The Dark Is My Delight.” For him and other practitioners of the genre, melancholia was a good thing—a low-risk musical dwelling place for exploring and embracing dark emotional waters. As fellow travelers, Welch and Rawlings follow suit but with (at least) one notable difference—they explore those depths through a woman’s lens. That take on darkness is their delight—and ours.
This first appeared on Wig & Pen Blog, please visit to view the accompanying videos.
