The Harrow & The Harvest

The duo of Welch and Rawlings

The creative duo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings is quite popular and well-known to all connoisseurs of bluegrass and country music. Delicate compositions were truly enjoyed by music lovers, and that proved to be hardly surprising: the duo’s songs managed to absorb the charm of old melodies and motives, and at the same time those pieces of art bring something absolutely new. The band’s debut took place in the middle of nineties, and since that they gained an impressive fan base all over the world. The musicians started with very simple songs, and gradually they were adding some new instruments, which, however, did not ruin the records’ atmosphere at all. On the contrary, the electric guitar and drums became an excellent element of Gillian Welch’s creativity indeed. Thereby the album titled Soul Journey that surprised many listeners in a good way saw the light back in 2003, so the fans had to wait for the new record for eight long years. Of course the duo kept on performing, but Gillian’s discography remained unchanged till 2011. And only now the musicians presented their brand-new record - The Harrow & The Harvest.

Good traditions of The Harrow & The Harvest

The long-awaited release of Welch’s fifth studio attempt finally took place, for her fans’ great pleasure. Numerous fans were looking forward to enjoy some nice melodies, braided with the singer’s tender vocals. Sincerity and simplicity – just like in old good times. Well, their expectations have been completely satisfied. From the very first notes of Scarlet Town it becomes obvious that the duo members remained faithful to their style: we are welcomed by delicate arrangements and traditional acoustic guitars. Scarlet Town is followed by Dark Turn Of Mind, which continues the lyrical theme, however not all the compositions are minor and generally sad. For example, The Way It Goes or Six White Horses sounds the way more positive and dynamic. The composition Tennessee will travel listeners to the warm state in the south of the US. The duo’s Tennessee is just incredibly atmospheric. Six White Horses will probably become a loud surprise to listeners, as soon as country tunes and lyrics in French are not quite a usual thing. The Harrow & The Harvest includes only ten compositions, but it is definitely the situation, when the quality, not the quantity, gets the first place.

Contemporary American classics

After listening to The Harrow & The Harvest no one will have questions about the time the duo spent on creating this record. The duo did not have any problems with writing new songs. The point is that Welch and Rawlings came to preparation of The Harrow & The Harvest very scrupulously. They had been selecting songs in a truly careful way, because the main target was to preset to listeners the best compositions that were enjoyed by the musicians themselves. Welch noted that sometimes one can face difficult stages in a life, and the most important thing then – just to move on. Thereby for eight long years the musicians managed to go through hard times, and excellent songs became the best possible award. And if many performers try to find new dimensions of sound, the duo of Welch and Rawlings had found their style a long time ago. Melodiousness and openness became their easy recognizable features, and there is absolutely no doubt that The Harrow & The Harvest took its notable place in American romantics’ discography.