Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are back together Forest, the first album of songs written by the duo in seven years. The 10-track album was recorded entirely at the eponymous East Nashville studio the duo has owned for more than two decades.
“Woodland is at the heart of everything we do, and has been for the last twenty years,” said Welch and Rawlings. “The last four years have been spent almost entirely within its walls, bringing it back to life after the 2020 tornado and making this record. Music is… a vortex of contradictions, emptiness, fullness, joy, sadness, destruction, permanence. Now.”
Forest kicks off with “Empty Trainload of Sky,” released Friday, a full-length track that features Welch's first vocals on a song released under her own name since 2011 The Harrow & The Harvest. “Empty Trainload of Sky” is a classic Welch/Rawlings number, mixing old rural American imagery (freight trains, river trains) with a hazy, modern impressionism (at one point, Welch references Neil Young). The song also marks the first time Welch has appeared in a full band (drums, bass) on record in over two decades.
Since Welch's The Harrow & The Harvestshe and creative partner Rawlings have released a semi-steady stream of records under various names: 2015's Nashville Obsolete (under the pseudonym David Rawlings Machine), 2017 Poor David's Almanac (under David Rawlings) and the 2020 cover collection All the good times (as Gillian Wells and David Rawlings).
Forest not a sequel to Welch The Harrow & The Harvest. Although Welch and Rawlings tend to write, sing, and play on nearly every song they release, the way they name their records tends to reflect who's singing. Their latest is the duo's 10th studio album, but only their second release under their joint names, so it's safe to assume that, as All the good timessingers share lead vocal duties.
Forest will be released on August 23, followed by an extensive fall tour. Next weekend, Welch and Rawlings will headline the Saturday night main stage at the Newport Folk festival.
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