This album is just...transcendent. I'm still profoundly affected by it after nearly five years' owning the disc. Truly enough, Gillian Welch's other albums feature what might be labeled a greater "variety" of song styles, and they deserve repeated listening as well, but "Time (the Revelator)" stands alone. I love it, and dearly, precisely because of its unique, hypnotic tone and pacing. Altcountry it isn't, and this is key; Welch and her facile, idiosyncratic guitarist David Rawlings succeed in the creation of an economical yet expansive acoustic sound-world, at once spare and sophisticated, and very beautiful. A pure, resigned sadness emanates from somewhere inside most of these haunting songs; never gratuitous, but so connected to real life in its truth-telling. Other selections leave one with a sense of the death of the real USA. The vocal harmonies and string playing are innovative, always serving the mood. I don't need to ferret out every arcane reference in the lyrics, or to "get the message," I simply adore this stuff. It's a new kind of music. Let it happen to you.

I first heard this music on a tiny boom box on John Hartford's Porch just after they had recorded some of it in an all night session in Studio B. I was curled up in a hard wooden chair, and very hung over from a night of drinking in my old haunts. Most of which I couldn't find after being away 20 years, but... Gillian & David brought me home... Ted The Fiddler

In a lifetime of listening to music, in the wake of thousands and thousands of albums sat with, there are perhaps 50 that are so self-assured, so complete, and so beautifully executed that there is nothing to say other than... "don't let another day pass without listening to this." Finding records like this is the whole reason I listen to music in the first place.
Sunset on a decrepit back porch with a glass of whiskey...

Wow--that track "I want to sing that Rock'n'Roll" just blows me away every time I hear it. I learned about Gillian Welch the way I do about many of the singer-songwriters, by hearing her work covered by someone else. I first heard "Caleb Meyer" and "Elvis Presley Blues" on Joan Baez' "Dark Chords on a Big Guitar". They were beautiful and I went to seek Welch herself out.

No big surprise, her work is wonderful. Her spare style on this CD lends to an intimacy that nothing else will achieve. For the most part, it's just Gillian singing, playing pretty simply on an acoustic guitar. Sit quietly and she comes into the room with you, haunting with her words.

"Red Dirt Halo" is something I can definitely identify with growing up in Oklahoma. 'Port Silt Loam' is the name of the copper intense red clay of the area and the rusty stain is more pernicious than grass. There's actually a company in Oklahoma that uses the red clay to tie dye t-shirts, it works so well.

Only one gig: "April 14 (Part 1)-Ruination Day (Part 2)" is a two parter that I wish was put side by side on the CD. I love the song, but I doubt I'll listen very often, because it brings tears to my eyes. It'd be a lot easier to just skip both of them at once.

Considered by many to be Gil & Dave's "masterpiece" (being that it came out right after the huge 'O Brother' craze), Time (The Revelator) is one of the records I can listen to over and over and over again and never get sick of. Gillian Welch has the unique ability to tell a story in her songs, and deliver them in such a way that one has no idea whether they are auto-biographical or just something from her imagination.
The album is slow, with Red Clay Halo and I want to Sing that Rock and Roll the up-tempo old-timey tunes of the bunch. This is definitely an "inspired" album, but don't think you'll be inspired to get up and dance.
Mr. Rawlings guitar playing is fantastic throughout, and Gillian once again picks up the banjo on a few of the songs. Time finishes up with the 14-minute epic "I Dream a Highway", which is, in my opinion a lyricial masterpiece, intricate and detailed and full of emotion.
In short, if you've enjoyed the previous Gillian Welch albums you'll dig this one. If you've never heard them before, get ready for some brilliant, moody, folky song writing, though-provoking lyrics, and stories that are part melancholy, part hopeful, loving, depressing,a little religious and downright captivating!