Stupendous Graley. Been loving the new album, hearing the Dylan references and echos, but this piece just blows me away! Saw them at The Beacon about a decade ago, just gorgeous.
Thanks, Craig! I've loved Welch & Rawlings stuff from the start, but I've been getting into them hardcore since this latest album came out. Their concert in Cincinnati last month sent me to the moon, so I tried to capture some of that moonlight in a bottle. Glad to hear you liked the results. I see they're playing Carnegie Hall in May, so hopefully you can catch them there.
This is just a terrific piece. Here's something that will amuse you while it reinforces one of your central observations - Bob Dylan got the music for "Things Have Changed" from "Observations of a Crow" by Marty Stuart from his 1999 concept album "The Pilgrim." The story is that Dylan was in Nashville looking over Marty Stuart's collection of Nudie Suits and other C&W memorabilia and told Marty that he wanted to use the song for something he had in mind. Stuart noted that he'd taken a lot from Dylan and that Dylan was welcome to it. Hilariously, after "Things Have Changed" came out some critics accused Stuart of cribbing the music from Dylan. It is great to see that Welch & Rawlings have put it to further good use. It is pretty great. Be sure to take a listen to "Observations of a Crow"
What a cool backstory--thanks, Michael! This is yet another perfect example of the re-creative "love & theft" folk process. Marty Stuart's experience reminds me of that story Dave Van Ronk tells in No Direction Home. After Dylan stole Van Ronk's arrangement of "House of the Rising Sun," people sometimes accused Dave of stealing it from Bob, which really irked him. But in a twist of karma that Van Ronk relished, after the song "went electric," people accused Dylan of stealing it from The Animals!
Terrific, GH. I caught Gill and Dave (again) in KC this fall. Those songs on Woodland, as ever, sneak up on you. Brilliant on you to follow the Dylan threads throughout. Cheers.
Much appreciated, Steve. I saw A Complete Unknown last night and so was finally able to take your review out of quarantine. I loved the movie, and you do an excellent job of distilling down its many strengths. Holiday cheers to you, too.
Don't try reading this all in one sitting. This is a moseying piece. Interruptions like river tides change and shift. A lot of side to side chunneling if you're feeling hedged in. From the couple years I worked at Amoeba Records on Telegraph in Berkeley and the decades of ruminations spent browsing those aisles over and under bins, there with the bookstores up and down Telegraph and Haste-y by-ways, with either or both of Gill or David slipping in or out of Telegraph with their sacks of inspiration and\or perspiration, not to mention moseying through the Berkeley and Oakland hills the insights into Welch and Rawlings own songbook and the ones they bring to newly redeemed or revived life in their living room sets together, jest as difficult as confronting a wondering winder like the Mississippi River running dry or knowing what to do with the glimpse of blue sky through the open empty rail car chugging across that trestle bridge above the roiling Cumberland over Shelby Bottoms on an "Empty Trainload of Sky...."
One shouldn't rush a read through of Joyce's long wondering winders of sentences in his novels, so don't go rushing through Welch and Rawlings either, whether they're coming or going through yours or anyone else's lifetime and lives or essays about anything worth a Rumi-Nation....
Not all sentences or songs or pomes or tales end. We don't always get to see 'em petering out either. A nod to Vonnegut and his uppity or euphoric guts depending on whether they're distressed or utopian for the moment's calm and recovery of that rarest sensation; an absence of pain: "So it goes..."
Reading your comment is like riding the raft with Huck and Jim down the mighty Mississippi, or hitching a ride out west with Sal and Dean, or transporting to Tralfamadore. Sounds like you've chased some shadows with Gill and Dave before. Long may they run, and long may we follow them into the jingle-jangle morning.
Great piece Graley! I was thinking that another Dylan related trainload of sky is his Rail Car in France. There are some good videos of it on the Halcyon Gallery site.
Wish Dylan would record with Dave and Gill for his next album, I think they are kindred spirits. I enjoy their work and the collab with Dylan fan Robyn Hitchcock on "Spooked". Hitchcock's Dylan covers album and the one by his wife Emma Swift are also notable, would also love to see them work with Dylan.
Stupendous Graley. Been loving the new album, hearing the Dylan references and echos, but this piece just blows me away! Saw them at The Beacon about a decade ago, just gorgeous.
Thanks, Craig! I've loved Welch & Rawlings stuff from the start, but I've been getting into them hardcore since this latest album came out. Their concert in Cincinnati last month sent me to the moon, so I tried to capture some of that moonlight in a bottle. Glad to hear you liked the results. I see they're playing Carnegie Hall in May, so hopefully you can catch them there.
This is just a terrific piece. Here's something that will amuse you while it reinforces one of your central observations - Bob Dylan got the music for "Things Have Changed" from "Observations of a Crow" by Marty Stuart from his 1999 concept album "The Pilgrim." The story is that Dylan was in Nashville looking over Marty Stuart's collection of Nudie Suits and other C&W memorabilia and told Marty that he wanted to use the song for something he had in mind. Stuart noted that he'd taken a lot from Dylan and that Dylan was welcome to it. Hilariously, after "Things Have Changed" came out some critics accused Stuart of cribbing the music from Dylan. It is great to see that Welch & Rawlings have put it to further good use. It is pretty great. Be sure to take a listen to "Observations of a Crow"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr7rst4jEY0&ab_channel=MartyStuart-Topic
What a cool backstory--thanks, Michael! This is yet another perfect example of the re-creative "love & theft" folk process. Marty Stuart's experience reminds me of that story Dave Van Ronk tells in No Direction Home. After Dylan stole Van Ronk's arrangement of "House of the Rising Sun," people sometimes accused Dave of stealing it from Bob, which really irked him. But in a twist of karma that Van Ronk relished, after the song "went electric," people accused Dylan of stealing it from The Animals!
Terrific, GH. I caught Gill and Dave (again) in KC this fall. Those songs on Woodland, as ever, sneak up on you. Brilliant on you to follow the Dylan threads throughout. Cheers.
Much appreciated, Steve. I saw A Complete Unknown last night and so was finally able to take your review out of quarantine. I loved the movie, and you do an excellent job of distilling down its many strengths. Holiday cheers to you, too.
This is lovely. Just saw Gillian and David a little over 2 weeks ago, love Woodland, love Dylan, and love this piece.
Great piece, Graley. Happiest of holidays to you and yours.
Don't try reading this all in one sitting. This is a moseying piece. Interruptions like river tides change and shift. A lot of side to side chunneling if you're feeling hedged in. From the couple years I worked at Amoeba Records on Telegraph in Berkeley and the decades of ruminations spent browsing those aisles over and under bins, there with the bookstores up and down Telegraph and Haste-y by-ways, with either or both of Gill or David slipping in or out of Telegraph with their sacks of inspiration and\or perspiration, not to mention moseying through the Berkeley and Oakland hills the insights into Welch and Rawlings own songbook and the ones they bring to newly redeemed or revived life in their living room sets together, jest as difficult as confronting a wondering winder like the Mississippi River running dry or knowing what to do with the glimpse of blue sky through the open empty rail car chugging across that trestle bridge above the roiling Cumberland over Shelby Bottoms on an "Empty Trainload of Sky...."
One shouldn't rush a read through of Joyce's long wondering winders of sentences in his novels, so don't go rushing through Welch and Rawlings either, whether they're coming or going through yours or anyone else's lifetime and lives or essays about anything worth a Rumi-Nation....
Not all sentences or songs or pomes or tales end. We don't always get to see 'em petering out either. A nod to Vonnegut and his uppity or euphoric guts depending on whether they're distressed or utopian for the moment's calm and recovery of that rarest sensation; an absence of pain: "So it goes..."
Health n' balance
Keep on doing Welch & Rawlings
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
Reading your comment is like riding the raft with Huck and Jim down the mighty Mississippi, or hitching a ride out west with Sal and Dean, or transporting to Tralfamadore. Sounds like you've chased some shadows with Gill and Dave before. Long may they run, and long may we follow them into the jingle-jangle morning.
Great piece Graley! I was thinking that another Dylan related trainload of sky is his Rail Car in France. There are some good videos of it on the Halcyon Gallery site.
https://www.halcyongallery.com/news/60-bob-dylan-rail-car-at-chateau-la-coste/
Thanks, Brian! Great point about Dylan's Rail Car. I hadn't thought of that, but you're totally right.
Just saw David & Gillian in Ithaca NY and floated back to the hotel afterward. So, so awesome!
Wish Dylan would record with Dave and Gill for his next album, I think they are kindred spirits. I enjoy their work and the collab with Dylan fan Robyn Hitchcock on "Spooked". Hitchcock's Dylan covers album and the one by his wife Emma Swift are also notable, would also love to see them work with Dylan.