Gillian Welch & David Rawlings at Farthing Tuesday Nationwide Tour Supports Soul Journey By Jeff Eason With her distinctive nasal voice, beautiful sad songs and Grapes of Wrath wardrobe, singer Gillian Welch has carved out a niche for herself in the decade since she won the first Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest. She and her musical partner, David Rawlings, have created some of the most memorable music of the last ten years by combining old string band instrumentation and yearning, timeless lyrical themes. But wait. Lo and behold, on Welch’s latest album, Soul Journey, there’s the sound of an electric organ and some drums. And some of the songs are downright upbeat. What’s happening? Has she finally decided to ditch her trademarked laid-back laconicism and borrow some dancing shoes? “This really is the sunniest album I’ve ever made,” said Welch. While “sunny” may not be the adjective that everyone would use to describe Soul Journey, the album does mark a distinct departure from her previous albums—although Time (The Revelator) did hint at a more experimental side of Welch and Rawling’s muse. “There’s a plain-spoken and straightforward quality to it, compared to the other records,” said Welch of her new album. “And while everything I’ve done has been fairly autobiographical, it’s also been more obscure. In fact, some of the songs on Soul Journey I never even intended to release; they were kind of recorded for myself.” Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will perform at Farthing Auditorium on the campus of Appalachian State University on Tuesday, October 21st at 8 p.m. The show is presented by the Student Programs at ASU. Welch first gained notoriety by winning the first Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest in 1993 with her song “Tear My Stillhouse Down.” By the time she returned to the festival the next year she already had released a debut album that was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Folk Album category and had seen her original songs recorded by Emmylou Harris and The Nashville Bluegrass Band. Although she has been a darling of the folk and bluegrass festival circuit for the past decade, it took her contribution to O Brother, Where Art Thou? for the rest of the listening public to catch up. She won a Grammy Award for her contribution to that soundtrack album plus an International Bluegrass Music Association Award for Album of the Year for Down From the Mountain, a various artists venture based on music from O Brother. Even as her latest album is somewhat of a departure for Welch, it retains the same timeless qualities found in previous efforts. The album contains two traditional songs, “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” and “I Had a Real Good Mother and Father,” which helps ease the transition for her longtime fans to embrace the newer, rowdier material. While writing the songs for Soul Journey, Welch tried to loosen her mental strings somewhat and let go of her perfectionism. “This time I tried not to be the editor that I usually am,” said Welch. “It was more like opening up the inside of my head and dumping whatever was in there onto the paper. To me, this means these songs have retained their original kernel. This record may be closer to the kind of music I really like than anything else I’ve put out.” Tickets Tickets for the October 21 performance by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are $10 in advance for ASU students and $12 for everybody else and at the door. For more information, or to order tickets, call the Farthing Auditorium Box Office at (828) 262-4046.