Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Howard Welchis an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth2 October 1967
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
You know, it's a pretty mysterious thing still, why you start the songs you start, and the specific flavor of them, the nature of them. I don't know about other writers, but, for me, it's still somewhat out of my control. It's not really a logical process.
There's a world of troubleTrying to take its turn I can hear it shaking undergroundAnd half a dozen lessons I might never learn Not until them troubles come around.
I do think that the abiding mystery of my origins has definitely had a profound effect upon my writing. There is that thing in the back of my mind where I think I don't really know who I am. And it may make it a little easier to shift around in my narrative voice.
I like the songs to appear very simple and to flow by without any kind of hiccup, but there has to be this impression of other currents underneath. Like if the songs aren't, on some level, multidimensional, we lose interest in them.
The main thing was finding this... voice that I had interest in, which I'll call the quiet-yet-stoic voice: the very quiet yet very strong voice that I developed, that people would want to hear and that was worth paying attention to.