“Soul Journey” may not be the quintessential Gillian Welch album — that honor goes to its predecessor, “Time (The Revelator)” — but it perhaps best encapsulates the many facets that make the Welch and Rawlings pairing so vital to modern roots music. This is an album largely of originals that sound like standards, which then proceeded to become contemporary standards. Welch’s music captures something so elemental and timeless about America with little ... read more
Not her most accessible, but Soul Journey contains some of my favorite Gillian Welch songs. 'Look At Miss Ohio' starts the album out on the correct foot, 'One Monkey' is gritty and fabulous, and 'Wrecking Ball' is about as wild as Gillian Welch gets. While I do not find it to have the tightness of some of her other records, her songcraft is undeniable. She writes music as if time does not exist.