Welch, Gillian - Soul Journey

Around the summer of 2003, I was working as an overnight security guard at some office towers near downtown Portland. That summer was extremely formative for me. The 8 hours I spent awake while everyone else slept allowed me to read and write. I read Blue Like Jazz that summer at my security desk. I wrote a brief novel at that same desk, falling asleep in the middle of chapters and sleeping until my supervisor would wake me up.

I didn’t work there very long, and I eventually walked out without notice so that I could attend my dad’s 50th birthday party. They would’ve fired me eventually, I’m sure.

Music, as always, played a key part in my psyche that summer. I remember listening to Joe ’ “Prince Valium” on repeat, and I remember listening to Paul Westerberg’s Stereo on the way to work. During the day, I would play ping pong outside with my friends Steve and John, drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and listening to Patty Griffin’s Living With Ghosts in the heat.

Summers are always great in retrospect…I remember the moments that were fun, and I forget the days that would creep by sadly.

One album stood out that summer, though, even above Patty and Paul Westerberg and Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief. That album was Soul Journey by Gillian Welch.

Before Soul Journey, Welch’s work, with a few exceptional tracks like “My Morphine” and “Time (The Revelator)”, never really caught my ear. Soul Journey, on the other hand, was thin-sliced Americana satisfaction. Taking a more light-hearted approach, Soul Journey shifts from slow-burning (“One Monkey”) to upbeat and head-nodding bluegrass (“Wayside/Back in Time”). Welch’s longtime partner, David Rawlings, locks in harmonies and lush instrumentation. The highlights of the album are mortared by the slower tracks. The greatest albums always have songs that fill time and allow the mind to wander.

The high points, though…”No One Knows My Name” touches on the beautiful realization of God’s love in the face of loneliness with the chorus, “Ain’t one soul in the whole world knows my name/But it’s written up in the sky/And I’ll see it by and by/Ain’t one soul in the whole world knows my name”. A violin at the end of the third chorus shreds as much as any beer-soaked guitar solo. “No One Knows My Name” is followed by the shuffling remorse and hope of “Lowlands”.

The key track on Soul Journey is its closer, “Wrecking Ball”, which builds and builds, a soulful and rollicking tune that rocks far more than it seems it should. When Gillian’s simple and rich voice sings “Yes, I remember when first we kissed/Though it was nothing at all/Like a wrecking ball”, her passion conveys more than volume.

I still listen to Soul Journey with the fervor of that summer. Recently, I was in Nashville and stood listening to the album outside of the Green Hills Mall and listened to the album, forgetting that “Wayside/Back in Time” was about Nashville. It felt good. Later, talking to a musician that I met there, he told me that the first time he’d heard Gillian and David was at the Green Hills Mall, playing live for the shoppers.

Gillian Welch, Soul Journey: A

Jordan Green recommends summers in Portland…he actually recommends all seasons in Portland, but especially summer.

Posted on March 3, 2005 3:22 PM