ACL Fest: Gillian Welch Rambles Through The Folk In The Summer Heat

The heat of the midday sun was a little too much to keep music fans moving around during Gillian Welch. Instead, the majority of onlookers sat and listened attentively to the sincere, story-telling country/folk of Welch and her musical partner and guitarist David Rawlings. The two of them have been playing together for a long time, and it really showed. The harmonies between the two voices were strong and radiant, and they seemed completely at ease with one another on stage. On numbers like “Red Clay Halo” the two were completely in time picking, twinkling and twanging with only two guitars. Later, when they played “My First Lover,” Welch picked up a banjo on which she was equally formidable. Welch set up the song by saying, “Everybody loves a chick with a banjo.” The crowd may have had their enthusiasm stifled a bit by the heat, but every time a spirited guitar solo broke out, which was often, everyone clapped and cheered. Later in the evening, Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell remarked about how amazing Welch’s performance was.