Welch and Rawlings have collaborated on seven critically acclaimed albums, five released under her name, and two released under the name Dave Rawlings Machine. Her 1996 debut, Revival, and the 2001 release Time (The Revelator), received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Her 2003 album, Soul Journey, introduced electric guitar, drums, and a more upbeat sound to their body of work. After a gap of eight years, she released a fifth studio album, The Harrow & The Harvest, in 2011, which was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Welch was an associate producer and performed on two songs of the soundtrack of the Coen brothers 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a platinum album that won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. She also appeared in the film attempting to buy a Soggy Bottom Boys record. Welch, while not one of the principal actors, did sing and provide additional lyrics to the Sirens song "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby." In 2018 she and Rawlings wrote the song "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" for the Coens' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, for which they received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Welch has collaborated and recorded with Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar, Emmylou Harris, the Decemberists, Sam Phillips, Conor Oberst, Ani DiFranco, and Robyn Hitchcock.
Gillian Howard Welch was born on October 2, 1967 in New York City, and was adopted by Mitzie Welch (née Marilyn Cottle) and Ken Welch, comedy and music entertainers. Her biological mother was a freshman in college, and her father was a musician visiting New York City. Welch has speculated that her biological father could have been one of her favorite musicians, and she later discovered from her adoptive parents that he was a drummer. Alec Wilkinson of The New Yorker stated that "from an address they had been given, it appeared that her mother ... may have grown up in the mountains of North Carolina". When Welch was three, her adoptive parents moved to Los Angeles to write music for The Carol Burnett Show. They also appeared on The Tonight Show.
As a child, Welch was introduced to the music of American folk singers Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Carter Family. She performed folk songs with her peers at the Westland Elementary School in Los Angeles. Welch later attended Crossroads School, a high school in Santa Monica, California. While in high school, a local television program featured her as a student who "excelled at everything she did."
Welch and Rawlings incorporate elements of early twentieth century music such as old time, classic country, gospel and traditional bluegrass with modern elements of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, jazz, and punk rock. The New Yorker's Alec Wilkinson maintained their musical style is "not easily classified—it is at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms".
The instrumentation on their songs is usually a simple arrangement, with Welch and Rawlings accompanying their own vocals with acoustic guitars, banjos, or a mandolin. Welch plays rhythm guitar with a 1956 Gibson J-50 (or banjo), while Rawlings plays lead on a 1935 Epiphone Olympic Guitar.The New Yorker's Wilkinson described Rawlings as a "strikingly inventive guitarist" who plays solos that are "daring melodic leaps". A review in No Depression by Andy Moore observed that Rawlings "squeezes, strokes, chokes and does just about everything but blow into" his guitar.
Many songs performed by Welch and Rawlings contain dark themes about social outcasts struggling against such elements as poverty, drug addiction, death, a disconnection from their family, and an unresponsive God. Despite Welch being the lead singer, several of these characters are male. Welch has commented, "To be commercial, everybody wants happy love songs. People would flat-out ask me, 'Don't you have any happy love songs?' Well, as a matter of fact, I don't. I've got songs about orphans and morphine addicts." To reflect these themes, Welch and Rawlings often employ a slow pace to their songs. Their tempo is compared to a "slow heartbeat", and Cowperthwait of Rolling Stone observed that their songs "can lull you into near-hypnosis and then make your jaw drop with one final revelation".
One Little Song
Gillian Welch Lyrics
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Cause everybody can't of thought of everything
One little song that ain't been sung
One little rag that ain't been wrung out completely yet
Gotta a little left
[Chorus]
One little drop of falling rain
One little bird that makes it every now and then
One little piece of endless sky
One little taste of cherry pie
One little week in paradise and I start thinkin'
There's gotta be a song left to sing
Cause everybody can't of thought of everything
One little note that ain't been used
One little word ain't been abused a thousand times
In a thousand rhymes
[Chorus]
Gotta be a song left to sign
Cause everybody can't of thought of everything
One little song that ain't been sung
One little rag that ain't been wrung out completely yet
Till there's nothing left
Gillian Welch's song "One Little Song" is a contemplative piece about the infinite possibilities that music and life hold. She suggests that no matter how much has already been created and experienced, there is always a new facet to explore. She sings, "There's gotta be a song left to sing / 'Cause everybody can't have thought of everything / One little song that ain't been sung / One little rag that ain't been wrung out completely yet / Got a little left." This sentiment is echoed in the chorus, which highlights the beauty in the small things: "One little drop of falling rain / One little chance to try again / One little bird that makes it every now and then / One little piece of endless sky / One little taste of cherry pie / One little week in paradise."
Line by Line Meaning
There's gotta be a song left to sing
There must be an unsung song that no one has written.
Cause everybody can't of thought of everything
Ideas are not infinite, so there must be a song yet to be discovered.
One little song that ain't been sung
One song hasn't been played or sung by anyone yet.
One little rag that ain't been wrung out completely yet
One song hasn't been explored or fully developed yet.
Gotta a little left
There is still potential to create something new.
One little drop of falling rain
Even the smallest thing can be significant.
One little chance to try again
Everyone deserves another opportunity to succeed.
One little bird that makes it every now and then
Success is achievable for everyone, even if it's only occasionally.
One little piece of endless sky
There is an infinite amount of beauty and inspiration to be found in the world.
One little taste of cherry pie
The simplest things can bring great joy and satisfaction.
One little week in paradise and I start thinkin'
Immersing oneself in a different environment can inspire reflection and new ideas.
One little note that ain't been used
Even a single unused note can inspire an entirely new song.
One little word ain't been abused a thousand times
There is still room for unique expression in language and songwriting.
Gotta be a song left to sign
There must be another song waiting to be discovered and signed.
Till there's nothing left
Creativity and inspiration must never stop until all ideas have been explored.
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: GILLIAN HOWARD WELCH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind