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June 25, 2011
Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch's interpret Gram Parson's classic 'Hickory Wind' here with help from Emmylou Harris on backup vocals.
Welch's voice is compelling in the center here and it doesn't need to surrounded with musical instruments. This is very spare, a haunting interpretation, almost.
It is bare-bones performance. It becomes a heartfelt song that speaks with a clear and undeniable honesty and captures the subtleties of the acoustic instruments and earthy harmonies. The spare style links back to the austere evocations of rural American folk culture.
Welch covered this song in Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons The doubters find Rawlings and Welch’s work to be a contrivance: roots music without the “real” country roots--eg., she's a California city girl, not an Appalachian coal miner's daughter.
This interpretation of Hickory Wind --akin to a slow heartbeat--- demonstrates Welch and Rawlings’s love and respect for the musical traditions they’ve immersed themselves in. Their musical style is at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms.
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