Listen Up! Gillian Welch Releases New Song For Mother’s Day

Gillian Welch debuts the song “Happy Mother’s Day” in celebration of the holiday. This release is on Acony Records, the independent record label she and partner David Rawlings founded in 2001, and comes from a newly rediscovered cache of demos and home recordings from the early 2000s. “We can’t always be with the ones we love, but that can’t stop us from saying ‘I love you,’” Gillian says. “I wrote this song one May when I was far away and couldn’t be with my mom on Mother’s Day. Then I called and sang it into her answering machine when I knew everybody’d be sitting down to eat.

Here is the original home demo for the song, recorded on a portable reel to reel.”

Listen to “Happy Mother’s Day” here.

Watch Out! Gillian Welch and David Rawlings Sing “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” Oscars 2019

The 2019 Academy Awards held very little appeal for me (how was Ben Dickey, Alia Shawkat and Charlie Sexton’s performances in ‘Blaze’ overlooked?!) but a break in the tedium came when Kacey Musgraves introduced Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. The Americana legends bedecked in matching nudie-esque suit finery performed “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings.” The song was a contender in this year’s race for best original song from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” Welch and Rawlings wrote the track, which was performed on the Coen Brothers’ series and soundtrack by actor Tim Blake Nelson and singer-songwriter Willie Watson.

The Coen Brothers also received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJiToQqeGr0&feature=youtu.be

Hear Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Perform “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings”

 Gillian Welch & David  Rawlings -  “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings”

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings wrote “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” for the recent six-part Coen brothers anthology, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs. If you watched the show you know the original song was sung by Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs alongside Willie Watson as “The Kid.” Today, Welch and Rawlings share a new version that they will perform at the 91st Academy Awards on 2/24.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings recently garnered a nomination for “Best Original Song” at the 2019 Academy Awards, for “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings.” their version of the song on Acony Records, which they sing in their own lonesome and timeless
style, invoking both the absurd fatalism of the show and their own penchant for a good yodel.

Welch and Rawlings said about their nomination: “We are eternally grateful to Ethan and Joel Coen for giving us the opportunity to write a cowboy duet between the living and the dead, and to Willie Watson and Tim Blake Nelson for bringing it to life.”

The pair confirmed they will perform the song on The Grand Ole Opry on February 16th as well as at the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24, 2019.

Welch revealed the story behind the song and working with the Coen Brothers in a recent Rolling Stone interview:

“They [The Coen Brothers] gave David and I the script, and they gave us the script of maybe two other of the shorts in the collection so we could gauge the darkness [laughs]… And then there was just a really basic conversation [with Joel Coen]. He was like, “Look, there’s the singing cowboy — he’s been around for a while. Now here comes the new guy. He’s cuter, he’s faster and he sings better. He’s just better. It’s the new model. He’s coming for him.”… Joel just said, “Here’s the specifics of it. They have to be able to sing it together. They have to be able to sing it once Tim has been shot and is dead and is floating up to heaven.”

Gillian also spoke to Variety about her and Rawlings’ process writing the song:
“It was a pretty straightforward thing: ‘Well, we need a song for when two singing cowboys gun it out, and then they have to do a duet with one of ‘em dead. You think you can do that?’ ‘Yeah, I think we can do that’”… “The more peculiar restraints you put upon a song, the more fun it is, so this was kind of a dream assignment,” Welch says. “And they didn’t tell us to do this, but if you’re writing a gunfight song between two singing cowboys, who wouldn’t love the opportunity to put some yodeling in?”

Buy the single “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” here.

T Bone Burnett, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings will receive Berklee American Master Awards at Music City Roots

Gillian Welch

Berklee College of Music will present American Master Awards to legendary record producer, songwriter and recording artist T Bone Burnett, as well as the acclaimed roots duo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on a special Tuesday night edition of Music City Roots, the variety weekly music broadcast from the Factory in Franklin, TN. The show, set for March 15, 2016, will feature performances by outstanding all-star Berklee alums Sierra Hull (’11), Liz Longley (’10) and Maureen Murphy (’99). Berklee alumni Welch and Rawlings will perform as well, closing the show following presentation of the awards.

Berklee at Music City Roots, Live at the Factory is open to the public and tickets will be available at musiccityroots.com. The show will air on participating public radio affiliates around the country on a future date.

The American Master Award is presented by Berklee to industry leaders whose openness, generosity and deep commitment to music education have made a positive impact on the lives of young musicians, providing them opportunities to grow as artists and leaders. Past recipients of the award include Grand Ole Opry Manager Pete Fisher, drummer Eddie Bayers and recording executive Jim Ed Norman.

“We’ve enjoyed the music of quite a few Berklee graduates and students on Music City Roots over the years, and we know what an important role the college has played in supporting roots and Americana artists to develop fresh and original takes on tradition, so this special show means a lot to us,” says the show’s journalist and artist interviewing co-host Craig Havighurst.

Gillian Welch, along with her singing, guitar playing partner David Rawlings, both Berklee class of 1992, made an immediate impact on American music with the release of their 1996 album Revival. Since then, they’ve released a string of acclaimed albums that update the atmosphere of Appalachian folk music and participated in key milestones of Americana, including the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack of 2001. T Bone Burnett produced Welch and Rawlings’ first album and the O Brother soundtrack, plus dozens of other recordings by artists as varied as Los Lobos, Ralph Stanley, Elton John and Diana Krall. He has been a member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, a Grammy-nominated recording artist and an enabler of numerous careers.

The March 15 show and award ceremony coincides with and celebrates Berklee’s Nashville trip, now an honored annual tradition. For 31 years, a group of Berklee students has spent its spring break in Nashville, getting deep music industry insight through clinics and workshops with accomplished alumni artists, songwriters, producers and engineers. The trip, which began with five students, has grown to more than 100 students per year and is led by Pat Pattison, professor of songwriting, and Stephen Webber, program director for the Music Production, Technology and Innovation Program at Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain. More than 3,000 students have attended the program since its inception. Longley and Hull participated in the Nashville trip as Berklee students. Welch and Rawlings first connected and started playing together as a result of the trip.

“This feels like a homecoming and a new beginning at the same time,” said Berklee President Roger Brown. “We’re thrilled to recognize T Bone, Gillian and David for their immeasurable contributions to music here in Nashville where so many Berklee alumni have become integral to the music community, and to forge a partnership with Music City Roots, a show that is so important to the tradition of live radio.”

The show will be webcast free via Livestream at 7:00 p.m. central at www.musiccityroots.com.

Dave Rawlings Machine Announces New Album ‘Nashville Obsolete.’

Dave Rawlings Machine

2015 Americana releases are about to get much, much better.

Dave Rawlings Machine has announced the release of their second album, ‘Nashville Obsolete,’ on Acony Records on September 18. ‘Nashville Obsolete,’ is the follow-up to the 2009 debut ‘A Friend of a Friend.’

‘Nashville Obsolete’ was recorded on analog tape at Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, TN, whose client list includes Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Neal Diamond, Emmylou Harris, John Mellencamp, Johnny Cash, Steve Earle, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dusty Springfield, Alabama and many, many others.

‘Nashville Obsolete’ features seven original compositions written by Rawlings and longtime collaborator Gillian Welch and produced by Rawlings. This will be the seventh studio album the duo have appeared together on.

Along with vocals and guitar byRawlings and Welch, other contributors included Willie Watson on vocals and guitar, Punch Brothers Paul Kowert of on bass, and guest appearances from Brittany Haas on fiddle and Jordan Tice on mandolin. A tour in support of the album is forthcoming.

Welch and Rawlings, along with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Don Henley, Ricky Skaggs & Los Lobos, will also be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting from the Americana Music Association during the 2015 Honors & Awards ceremony held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The award will be presented to the two days before the album is released on September 16.

1. The Weekend
2. Short Haired Woman Blues
3. The Trip
4. Bodysnatchers
5. The Last Pharaoh
6. Candy
7. Pilgrim (You Can’t Go Home)

Pre-orders of ‘Nashville Obsolete’ are currently available from iTunes and physically and Amazon

Here’s Welch and Rawlings’ opening number of “65 Revisited,” the Bob Dylan 50th anniversary tribute of his electric performance at Newport Folk Festival.

BBC Lost Highway: The History of American Country

Lost-Highway-The-Story-of-Country-Music-Cover

If you haven’t seen the BBC’s “Lost Highway: The History of American Country’ then you’re in for a treat.

This four-part, four-hour documentary follows the musical lineage from the Bristol Sessions to Nashville, from Texas to Bakersfield, and brings it all together in a beautiful story of heritage and style any songwriter would love.

The history of it’s roots in mountain music, through bluegrass it’s first super star Hank Williams and honky tonkers. From the jazz fusion of Western Swing to the dominance of the adult-pop Nashville Sound through the extraordinary and game-changing emergence of female performers and the evolution of newer forms of the genre – country rock to alt.country and Americana.

Featuring contributions from Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Hank Williams III, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam and Dolly Parton among others. Lost Highway: The Story of Country Music is produced by William Naylor; the series editor is Michael Poole.

Sit back with your favorite drink and enjoy.

T Bone Burnett Recording Unfinished Dylan Tunes with Elvis Costello, Jim James, Marcus Mumford [VIDEO]

New Basement Tapes

If there was ever an Americana and roots music watershed recording the Basement Tapes 1967 sessions from Bob Dylan and The band was one.

Now there’s official word that that mainstay of Americana, T Bone Burnett, is working on a project “Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes.” The project has a solid (and marketable) roster – Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons.)

The event focuses on two-dozen recently discovered lyrics written by Dylan during the 1967 period that generated original legendary Basement Tapes release.

Recording is nearly complete on the project which will be released later this year by Electromagnetic Recordings/Harvest Records. The album will be accompanied by a Showtime documentary titled Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued, directed by Sam Jones (the Wilco documentary, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart)

I can imagine the germ of this endeavor occurred during the “Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” held at New York City’s Town Hall last September. That one-night event featured Mumford and Giddens as well as Joan Baez, Patti Smith, Jack White, The Avett Brothers, Punch Brothers, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings Machine, Willie Watson, The Milk Carton Kids, Colin Meloy and Lake Street Dive. (see below)

Truth is I’m ambivalent about this. A sequel to The New Basement Tapes is like a sequel to Casablanca. Is it necessary and will it ever have a chance to even come close to the genius of the original. And as much as i respect the artists involved, they are hardly the contemporary versions of Dylan and The Band.

If this was Ryan Adams and the Felice Brothers I still think it would fall short, but damn it would be interesting.

Here’s to being proven wrong.

You can sign up for updates at on the project at the official site.

Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes” will be released Nov. 11. Pre-order here.

“Another Day/Another Time” Celebrates the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis” to Air on Showtime

Another Day/Another Time

“Another Day/Another Time,” a concert inspired by the Coen Brothers’ film “Inside Llewyn Davis”, which itself was inspired by the 60’s New York folk movement, took place at Town Hall
Sun, September 29, 2013.

Luckily Showtime set up some cameras.

The concert features performances of songs from the early 1960s in addition to live renditions of the film’s folk music.

The performances include The Avett Brothers, Marcus Mumford, Jack White, Gillian Welch, Joan Baez, Dave Rawlings Machine, Rhiannon Giddens, Lake Street Dive, Colin Meloy, The Milk Carton Kids, Punch Brothers, Patti Smith, Willie Watson, and the film’s lead Oscar Isaac.

“Another Day/Another Time” will will air December 13 at 10:00 PM on Showtime.

Another Time, Another Place: Celebrating the music of Inside Llewyn Davis benefit concert 9/29/13 [VIDEOS]

 Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the music of Inside Llewyn Davis

I was not fortunate enough to attends the Inside Llewyn Davis benefit concert this last Sunday at New York’s Town Hall, but YouTube user Julie P did and was kind enough to share some videos of the performance which I’ve posted below.

The concert is inspired by the upcoming folk pseudo-documentary Inside Llewyn Davis by the incredible Coen brothers (O Brotehr Where Art Thou, No Country For Old Men, True Grit) The evet was produced by the Coens and the film’s Executive Music Producer T Bone Burnett. the roots music who’d=who bill included The Avett Brothers, Joan Baez, Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Lake Street Dive, Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, The Milk Carton Kids, Marcus Mumford, Conor Oberst, Punch Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine, The Secret Sisters, Patti Smith, Gillian Welch and Willie Watson. The artists as well as stars from the film performed songs from the film live, as well as songs from the early 1960s that inspired it.

As more videos are posted I will add them here.

Colin Maloy, Joan Baez, and Gillian Welch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy7dNZTNem8&feature=c4-overview&list=UUkM6IBsFkHspnonQLwecdKA

Gillian Welch, Rhiannon Giddens, and Carey Mulligan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K15nU5a6Qek&feature=share&list=UUkM6IBsFkHspnonQLwecdKA

Patti Smith, Avett Brothers, Dave Rawlings + – People Have The Power
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDCLmTq_y2M&feature=c4-overview&list=UUkM6IBsFkHspnonQLwecdKA

Marcus Mumford, Oscar Isaac, and Punch Brothers “Fare Thee Well”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TstKeaP-aHk

Marcus Mumford and Joan Baez – “Corn Whiskey When I’m Dry”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIsr2bwVrz0&list=UUkM6IBsFkHspnonQLwecdKA

Marcus Mumford – “I Was Young When I Left Home” (Bob Dylan)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvVBce8hQF8&list=UUkM6IBsFkHspnonQLwecdKA

Elvis Costello, Punch Brothers, Inside Llewyn Davis actor Oscar Isaac, & Adam Driver “Please Mr. Kennedy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzU8mz3eqTc&list=UUkM6IBsFkHspnonQLwecdKA

Americana Music Support at the Late Show with David Letterman [VIDEO]

David Letterman

David Letterman, and his Late Show booking crew, have been long-time enthusiastic supporters of country and Americana music. Recently it seems like Dave has invited a roots artist to play every night of the week, and this is great new for the artists needing exposure and fans looking for great music.

And as Saving Country Music tells it, the Late Show was the one that reached out to many of these artists to perform on the program. Many of them, like dale Watson and Shove;s and Rope, getting national exposure for the first time.

Here’s to you, Dave and crew, for championing great roots and Americana music like the clips below.

Ryan Adams – Lucky Now – December 5, 2011

Shovels & Rope – Birmingham – David Letterman January 30, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfPnGEgtDXI

Elizabeth Cook – If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down – March, 14 2013

Dale Watson & His Lonestars – “I Lie When I Drink” – June 24, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcRTTy0Epg

Ray Wylie Hubbard – Mother Blues – David Letterman – January 9, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r92RkIKm6Wc

Marty Stuart “Country Boy Rock & Roll” June 29, 2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcJ80pKqsA0

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit “Codeine” – November 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUzc7cUaPWs

Pokey LaFarge – “Central Time” – 16 July, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=82hWDlADJDg

Tom Russell with Andrew Hardin – “Tonight We Ride” – 2009

Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues” – January 5, 2011

Andrew Bird with Tift Merritt and Alan Hampton – “If I Needed You” (Townes Van Zandt) – 10/30/2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8TdDJe6-xY

Jamey Johnson with Alison Krauss – “Make the World Go Away” 10/12/2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu-hSTup6CQ

Steve Earle – “Copperhead Road” – 1988

Emmylou Harris , Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch – 2001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D8YEgANLow

Willie Nelson – “Always On My Mind” – date?

Earl Scruggs and Friends – Foggy Mountain Breakdown – May, 12/07