Gillian: An Apperception


Once again we've reached a time of thanksgiving--no, wait, that was last month. This month is a time for wrapping things up, in every sense of the term. And the best way to look at the stretch from Boxing Day to New Year's is as 'The Week Outside Time', which sounds vaguely like the title of a 50's science fiction movie, putting you in the right frame of mind to extract maximum benefit from these tapped-out days. The orgy of buying is over, and now you face, with trepidation or undoused ardor, one more orgy of drinking (if not your own, then everyone else's) before the two-faced new year appears, making claims to be a god. Personally, I don't make any serious effort to size things up until the Chinese New Year, which at least gives you an animal to work with.

Since you've got the feel of living outside time, why not feel the flush of living in several different times and places? It is good to remind oneself, no? If you don't have it, get ahold of "Soul Journey", by Gillian Welch, she who provides the edenic experience of pure music to all those who will truly listen.

This album, in addition to its many other remarkable accomplishments, contains the one song that most embodies the underlying feeling lurking in the country today. 'One Monkey (Don't Stop the Show)' builds toward a mystic certainty as you and the band wait for that slow train to pull into the station. The rhythm section is totally solid and focused, and Gillian plays the drums with a direct panache that could never be summoned by a 'professional' drummer. In the structure of "Soul Journey" songs using a rhythm section alternate with gems using only voice and guitar--the thumping intro tune 'Miss Ohio', followed by just the Mississippi John Hurt fingerpickin' of 'Make me a Pallet on your Floor' (no room for drums on that front porch). The style of the songs using bass and drums sometimes reminds you of a facet of the work of a Canadian guy, especially when the harmonica kicks in.

Every time you take the Soul Journey, you find more and more connections between and within the songs. Like reincarnation, the same lesson comes back at you in many different ways. You should not download the album piecemeal or any other way. Not only is it a completely unified song cycle, but you need the artwork which dovetails, I would guess perfectly, with the music. You also need this particular combination of very pale green and robin's egg blue comprising all the backgrounds of the cover design.

Whatever the new year brings you, Gillian Welch is there to remind you that even if you're hunched over a Play Station or an X-Box, you contain multitudes. And to remind you of the corollary---if you can disengage from some of your technology you're much more likely to have an in-depth conversation with Walt Whitman, or Woody Guthrie, or your authentic, unprogrammed muse, the one who's been there all along.

-------Lp