Gillian Welch

The format is her voice and rhythm guitar with partner David Rawlings doing harmony and embellishments. It's an old-time, intimate sound that is about as "Americana" as you can get.

 

For those who enjoyed the Decemberists newist album, Welch is the female voice found throughout the album. Meloy is a big fan of H&H. I actually prefer it to the King is Dead by quite a bit. If you like folk music, this will likely be one of the albums of the year.

 

Curious if anyone else knows or enjoys this artist.

 

Like most of us here, I 'discovered' her by way of The King is Dead.  Then of course I started looking around, and found that she was on the ol' Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, which i enjoy immensely.  Then I started looking around some more and found she was there way back when on Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia, another fine album which greatly benefits from her presence.  So then I picked up her album Revival, which seems to be thought of rather highly and is another good album.  So I have good expectations for the new one. 

 

 

That's Gillian (and David Rawlings) on vocals.  Of course this is from year 2000.  Don't know how Knopfler knew about them.

 

As with The Decemberists, she absolutely inhabits the song and makes it pure magic.  Of course it doesn't hurt to have a fine Knopfler solo at the end. 

 

Regarding Berklee, I have a few friends who spent some time there in the '70's, one of whom actually graduated.  As with any college experience, you get out of it what you put into it.  I'm told it ain't what it used to be back then.  But then, nothing is.