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".
Winters Come & Gone
Gillian Welch Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Come to my window sill
Been so lonesome
Shaking that morning chill
Oh little red bird
Open your mouth and say
Been so lonesome
Just about flown away
[Chorus]
So long now I've been out
In the rain and snow
But winter's come and gone
A little bird told me so
Oh little blue bird
Pearly feather breast
Five cold nickels' all I got left
Oh little blue bird
What am I gonna do
Five cold nickels
Ain't gonna see me through
[Chorus]
Oh little black bird
On my wire line
Dark as trouble
In this heart of mine
Poor little black bird
Sings a worried song
Dark as trouble
'Til winter's come and gone
[Chorus: x2]
The lyrics of Gillian Welch's song "Winters Come & Gone" can be interpreted as a reflection on life's struggles and the hope for new beginnings. The presence of the little red bird in the opening stanza can be seen as a metaphor for hope and renewal. The singer is seeking comfort from the bird, hoping it will sing away their loneliness and the morning chill. The bird is summoned to open its mouth and communicate a message of hope. The use of the bird as a symbol is significant as birds are often associated with freedom and escape, two things that the singer appears to be longing for.
In the subsequent stanza, the singer speaks to a little blue bird with a "pearly feather breast" who seems to be in a similar position of financial distress. The bird is personified and engaged with in the same way, reflecting the ongoing struggle of the singer. In the last stanza, the singer addresses a little black bird that sings a "worried song," and the darkness of this bird can be seen as a reflection of the singer's own troubles. However, the bird's song provides the singer with the hope that winter, a metaphor for their struggles, will come to a close eventually.
The chorus repeats the phrase "winter's come and gone," which can be seen as an echoing of the hope for a new dawn, a new season of growth and opportunity. The song's lyrics ultimately suggest that the present struggles of the singer are temporary, and new beginnings and opportunities will come in time.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh little red bird
Addressing a small bird for company in feeling lonely
Come to my window sill
Inviting the bird to sit by the open window
Been so lonesome
Expressing deep sadness and isolation
Shaking that morning chill
Trembling in the cold of the morning
Oh little red bird
Addressing the bird again
Open your mouth and say
Asking the bird to make a sound
Been so lonesome
Reiterating the feeling of loneliness
Just about flown away
Almost giving up on hope and leaving
Chorus
Refrain indicating the passage of time and the arrival of winter
So long now I've been out
Been outside for a long time
In the rain and snow
Enduring harsh weather conditions
But winter's come and gone
Winter has passed, indicating the end of a difficult period
A little bird told me so
Using figurative language to suggest an intuitive sense of change
Oh little blue bird
Addressing a different bird
Pearly feather breast
Describing a physical trait of the bird
Five cold nickels' all I got left
Acknowledging a lack of resources
Oh little blue bird
Addressing the bird again
What am I gonna do
Expressing feeling of helplessness
Five cold nickels
Reiterating the lack of financial resources
Ain't gonna see me through
Not enough money to get by on
Chorus
Refrain indicating the passage of time and the arrival of winter
Oh little black bird
Addressing yet another bird
On my wire line
Describing the perch of the bird
Dark as trouble
Using the appearance of the bird as a metaphor for inner turmoil
In this heart of mine
Expressing the connection between external and internal experiences
Poor little black bird
Showing empathy for the bird
Sings a worried song
Behaving in a way that indicates distress
Dark as trouble
Reiterating the metaphor about the appearance of the bird
Til winter's come and gone
Hoping for relief from pain once winter is over
Chorus
Final refrain indicating the passage of time and the arrival of winter
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DAVID TODD RAWLINGS, GILLIAN HOWARD WELCH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@oregonsurfer
I sing this in my head. For months now. Working, waiting for winter to pass and a baby to be born. Thank you Gillian. I’ll always remember this time in my life through this beautiful noise of yours.
@jessestewart169
Shes a catchy tune sir. 😊👍
@andrewpearson1903
The album is so heavy that when this song pops up at the end, it's like coming up for air
@elwray3506
It has become sort of a ritual of mine to get back to this here song at this time a year.
@2323gypsy
Gillian and Dave are healers. I love them so much.
@denimal07
I love the purity of the lyrics...such a beautiful song.
@f.b.8254
I adore this. Sang with it about five times.
@ruthking5994
Blew through my mind this morning
@garebear1015
Count yourself as precious and beloved.
@michaelbrennan4516
I asked for a Gillian Welch song at a session in a pub last night. The 'band' said that when Ms Welsh (note the 's') came in she'd sing one. She came in and she did. This song. Hadn't heard it before but I looked it up today, and 'listened it up'. It's a good one.