Hell Among The Yearlings

Entertainment Weekly - "...The anachro-misery might seem all too precious if Welch weren't just a brilliant mimic but nearly psychic; you'd swear she was channeling the unwritten greatest hits of the Stanley Brothers....each improbably catchy elegy has a saving specificity of character and emotion attached to the tribulation..." - Rating: A- Rolling Stone - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...Welch sings with a world-weary resignation....(the) bare-bones instrumentation...settles softly on each track's surface, enabling her detached, narcotic voice to hover over the melodies. File next to Bruce Springsteen's NEBRASKA." Q - 4 out of 5 stars - "A os Angeleno Pixies fan who sounds like some God-fearing 1920s Appalachian farmer's wife...graveyard voice...[and] skeletally-picked guitar..." Uncut - 5 stars out of 5 - "...This is Welch in full, dark flower....A beautiful, literate record earthed somewhere between the dustbowl and the woodpile..." Dirty Linen - "...the songs are natural objects, scarcely betraying that they were written at all; they sound as if they have always existed....This record is darker and starker than the first, but more solid and more natural; a wonderful work." Uncut - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Brilliant..." Uncut - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Here were Welch and Rawlings in pure mountain mode, their softly graceful harmonising complemented by brittle, almost tinny guitars that recalled Willie Nelson." Rolling Stone (9/3/98, pp.102-104) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...Welch sings with a world-weary resignation....(the) bare-bones instrumentation...settles softly on each track's surface, enabling her detached, narcotic voice to hover over the melodies. File next to Bruce Springsteen's NEBRASKA." Q (1/02, p.123) - 4 out of 5 stars - "A os Angeleno Pixies fan who sounds like some God-fearing 1920s Appalachian farmer's wife...graveyard voice...[and] skeletally-picked guitar..." Entertainment Weekly (7/24/98, pp.72-73) - "...The anachro-misery might seem all too precious if Welch weren't just a brilliant mimic but nearly psychic; you'd swear she was channeling the unwritten greatest hits of the Stanley Brothers....each improbably catchy elegy has a saving specificity of character and emotion attached to the tribulation..." - Rating: A- Uncut (9/03, p.92) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...This is Welch in full, dark flower....A beautiful, literate record earthed somewhere between the dustbowl and the woodpile..." Dirty Linen (6-7/99, p.77) - "...the songs are natural objects, scarcely betraying that they were written at all; they sound as if they have always existed....This record is darker and starker than the first, but more solid and more natural; a wonderful work." Uncut (11/01, p.124) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Brilliant..."

Gillian Welch lends her wise-beyond-her-years sensibility to a further exploration of the traditional music of early 20th century Appalachia, returning to the territory of 1996's REVIVAL. With the exception of the up-tempo, rockabilly-influenced "Honey Now", the songs on HELL AMONG THE YEARLINGS sound so old-timey as to seem almost archival. T-Bone Burnett returns as producer, again making restraint and austerity work well with Welch's starkly beautiful songs, like the melancholic "My Morphine" and the desolate tragedy "One Morning", narrated with quiet poignancy by a dying man's mother. Welch's voice itself, harmonising with acoustic guitars and banjo, has a gentle, twangy simplicity which speaks of another age.|