Great Album: Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete

“In addition to the kind of 1930s/Depression/ Dust Bowl thing we’ve always had going on, there’s a pretty strong 1970s thing going on, too”
– Gillian Welch

Dave Rawlings machine are Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Willie Watson (guitar) and Punch Brothers’ Paul Kowert on double bass. It sounds like the Gillian Welch albums infused with more Bob Dylan & The Band and Neil Young. It’s a good stew. The latest album from Dave Rawlings Machine, is a 44 minute collection of American music written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch.

Rawlings and Welch have been making music together for many years, releasing albums and playing concerts both under the name “Gillian Welch” and “Dave Rawlings Machine”, I guess, depending upon which one of them is doing most of the lead singing. Dave’s voice is a bit more prominent on the Dave Rawlings albums, and they sound a bit less Apalachian or old-time country music.

But Gillian Welch told the Wall Street Journal a few years ago, “We’re the artist.”

The Trip is the best new “Bob Dylan song” released in 2015, great lyrics, wonderful melody, and very Daylanesque in the build up and verse progression in a spoken words stream-of-consciousness manner. One of the best songs this year.

Dave Rawlings Machine – The Weekend (Official Video):

Dave Rawlings Machine – Full Performance (Live on KEXP):
Songs:
Short Haired Woman Blues
The Last Pharaoh
The Weekend
Sweet Tooth

Beautifully captured on tape with the mix of spontaneity and professionalism expected from a Rawlings/Welch performance, Nashville Obsolete has something of a brooding grandeur to it with standouts like “Short Haired Women” and the meandering, 11-minute “The Trip” feeling bigger and deeper than the small group of players producing them.
– Timothy Monger (Allmusic)

– Hallgeir