Time (The Revelator)

Time (The Revelator)
Studio album by Gillian Welch
Released July 31, 2001
Recorded RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN
Genre Alternative country
Length 51:34
Label Acony
Producer David Rawlings
Gillian Welch chronology

Hell Among the Yearlings
(1998)		 Time (The Revelator)
(2001)		 Soul Journey
(2003)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
The A.V. Club Favorable[2]
Robert Christgau [3]
CMJ Favorable[4] link
Entertainment Weekly A-[5]
Mojo [6]
NPR Unfavorable[7]
Pitchfork Media 8.1/10[8]
Rolling Stone [9]
Spin Mixed[10]

Time (The Revelator) is the third full length album by Gillian Welch. All songs were written by Welch together with David Rawlings and were recorded in Nashville, Tennessee.[11] "I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll" was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium as part of the sessions for the concert film, Down from the Mountain, all the rest of the tracks were recorded at RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee.

Recording

Welch said of recording "Revelator," "It was a mic test – the version on the record. Dave just said, ‘play ‘Revelator’ and it was okay, let’s try it and we used the mike test." Adds Rawlings, "We played it once and it was great because we hadn’t played it in months. We got that first take feeling."[12]

According to Rawlings, "I Dream A Highway" had never been played before it was recorded. "So, we played it twice and I edited both versions together. But, I wanted that because I knew it was a minor song that had... There was a lot that could happen with the harmonies and the guitar playing than if we’d done it a lot of times, so we could just travel through a lot more of it than if we knew where we were supposed to start and where we were supposed to end."[12]

Track listing

All songs written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

  1. "Revelator" – 6:22
  2. "My First Lover" – 3:47
  3. "Dear Someone" – 3:14
  4. "Red Clay Halo" – 3:14
  5. "April the 14th Part I" – 5:10
  6. "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" – 2:51
  7. "Elvis Presley Blues" – 4:53
  8. "Ruination Day Part II" – 2:36
  9. "Everything Is Free" – 4:48
  10. "I Dream a Highway" – 14:39

Credits

Musicians

Production

Artwork

Charts

Year Chart Peak
2001 Billboard Heatseekers[13] 5
2001 The Billboard 200[13] 157
2001 Billboard Independent Albums[13] 7
2001 Billboard Top Internet Albums[13] 4
2001 FolkDJ-L Folk Radio Airplay[14] 2

Accolades

Welch and Rawlings received a great deal of recognition for their work on Time. The album received many award nominations and was included on many "best album of the year" lists by critics. It has since been included on a number of "best of all time" list.

The album was ranked 64 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the decade.[15] It's also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Awards

Although Welch and Rawlings did not win in any category, the duo received four nominations at the first annual awards for the Americana Music Association in 2002.[16] Time (The Revelator) was nominated for Album of the Year, and "I Want to Sing That Rock & Roll" was nominated for Song of the Year (prizes that went to Buddy and Julie Miller's Buddy & Julie Miller and "She's Looking at Me" by Jim Lauderdale, Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys). Welch and Rawlings together were nominated for Artist of the Year while Rawlings was nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year (awarded to Jim Lauderdale and Jerry Douglas respectively).

The album was also nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards, but lost out to Bob Dylan's Love and Theft.[17]

Best album of the year lists

Publication List title Rank
Addicted to Noise (USA) 2002: Fifth Annual International Music Writers Poll [18] 10
Amazon.com (USA) Top 100 Editors' Picks: Music [19] 57
Barnes & Noble.com (USA) Albums of the Year 52
BigO (Singapore) Albums of the Year 12
E! Online (USA) Top 25 CDs [20] no order
Heaven (Netherlands) Albums of the Year 3
Les Inrockuptibles (France) Albums of the Year 15
Mojo (UK) Albums of the Year 4
The New Yorker (US) Twelve Favorites from our 2001 CD Rotation [21] no order
OOR (Netherlands) Albums of the Year [22] 25
Rock's Back Pages Best of the Year: RBP's Albums of 2001 [23] 10
Uncut (UK) Albums of the Year [24] 33
Village Voice (USA) Annual Pazz & Jop Critic's Poll [25] 14
Washington City Paper (USA) The CP Top 20 of 2001 [26] 33
WFUV, New York City (US) Best of 2001 FUV staff Picks [27] no order
WUMB, Boston (US) Top Ten 2001 [28] 3

External links

Notes and sources

  1. ↑ Zac Johnson, "Review: Time (The Revelator)", Allmusic
  2. ↑ Stephen Thompson, "Music: Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator), The Onion (A.V. Club), April 19, 2002
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Gillian Welch". Robert Christgau.
  4. ↑ Orlov, Piotr, "Review: Gillian Welch: Time (The Revelator", CMJ, August 8, 2001
  5. ↑ Chris Williams, "Review: Time (the Revelator) (2001)", August 6, 2001
  6. ↑ [Review], Mojo, p.102, November 2001 ("This is a profoundly good record")
  7. ↑ Ken Tucker, Review, Fresh Air, National Public Radio, August 14, 2001
  8. ↑ Brad Haywood, "Record Reviews: Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)", Pitchfork Media, January 29, 2002
  9. ↑ Robert Santelli, "Review: Time (The Revelator), Rolling Stone, 875, August 16, 2001 (note: the album appears to have been later upgraded to "four out of five stars" in the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide.)
  10. ↑ [Review], Spin, p.131, October 2001 ("Unlike her major-label LPs, this is a stringently stripped-down, dark-side-of-the-mountain album that's near impossible to cozy up with.")
  11. ↑ Production notes within the booklet accompanying the album.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Heselgrave, Doug (20 July 2011). "Talking with Gillian & David (Part II)". No Depression. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Gillian Welch entry at Allmusic
  14. ↑ FolkDJ-L Top albums and songs of August 2001; note: tied for number 2 with Alison Krauss and Union Station's New Favorite
  15. ↑ "Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 greatest albums of the decade".
  16. ↑ Andrew Dansby, "Welch Leads Americana Nominees", Rolling Stone.com, August 5, 2002
  17. ↑ "2002 Grammy Awards", CNN.com
  18. ↑ "2002: Fifth Annual International Music Writers Poll", Addicted to Noise (with 30 votes link to list
  19. ↑ "Top 100 Editors' Picks: Music", Amazon.com (link--no longer available)
  20. ↑ "Top 25 Cds", E! Online, December 2001 (Archived February 23, 2002 at the Wayback Machine or original list)
  21. ↑ "Pop Roundup: Twelve Favorites from our 2001 CD Roation", The New Yorker, January 7, 2002
  22. ↑ originally in Oorlijsten copy of list from muzieklijstjes.nl
  23. ↑ "Best of the Year: RBP's Albums of 2001 ", Rock's Back Pages (Archived December 21, 2001 at the Wayback Machine of original list)
  24. ↑ originally in Uncut, copy of list from rocklistmusic.co.uk
  25. ↑ "Pazz & Jop Critic's Poll", The Village Voice (link to 2001 album list)
  26. ↑ "The CP Top 20 of 2001", Washington City Paper, December 21, 2001 (actually a nine way tie for 16th place with 15 points)
  27. ↑ "Best of 2001 FUV Staff Picks", WFUV.org (named by 5 out of 16 staff members)
  28. ↑ "Top 10 Cds 2001", WUMB.org