Two guitars. Two voices. Fifteen years because the duo final stopped by the Tiny Desk, not a lot has modified in how they current themselves, proper all the way down to their most popular guitar tuner. That is the way it’s been, with some variation, for over three a long time, within the timeless music of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.
And, but, the whole lot adjustments if you pay attention deeper and stay longer. Behind the Desk, going through one another, the ballad “Empty Trainload of Sky” achieves an auditory phantasm as their guitars chug and vocal harmonies swirl surrealistic imagery throughout a basic American canvas. “Lawman” may very well be a few corrupt politician 100 years in the past or yesterday. “Hashtag,” a tribute to the late Man Clark, is, at turns, tragicomic (“Singers such as you and I are solely information after we die”) and existential (“When will we grow to be ourselves?”). These songs, from final 12 months’s Woodland, endure change with grace, leaning into small moments in an effort to make the outsized ones appear surmountable.
Welch and Rawlings shut with “Revelator,” a mystic brew of apocalyptic prophecy and private historical past that marked a major leveling-up for the duo when it was initially launched in 2001. Behind the Desk, their simmering harmonies bloom as a lot as they wither, solely to burst by way of Rawlings’ guitar solos that vary from reflective to ravaging. Because the music ends, Welch and Rawlings bend towards their mics — and one another — not solely to let the final chord ring out, however to let the sensation reverberate.
SET LIST
- “Empty Trainload of Sky”
- “Lawman”
- “Hashtag”
- “Revelator”
MUSICIANS
- Gillian Welch: vocals, guitar
- David Rawlings: vocals, guitar
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Lars Gotrich
- Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Collection Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Sofia Seidel
- Audio Engineer: Zo vanGinhoven
- Manufacturing Assistant: Dora Levite
- Photographer: Michael Zamora
- Tiny Desk Crew: Maia Stern, Kara Body, Ashley Pointer
- Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
- Government Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Collection Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
