Apropos Dylan: Die ersten Rezensionen zu Gillian Welchs neuem Album überschlagen sich vor Begeisterung. Gillian Welch, der ewige Geheimtipp. Zwei Beispiele dieser kollektiven Begeisterung: Nick Coleman etwa schreibt im „Independant“: Harrow…is Americana in its subtlest form: never more than a voice plus two twangy instruments and harmony; new music arising from old mud as quietly as fog and as edgelessly. The songs? As „Dark Turn of Mind“ and „The Way the Whole Thing Ends“ demonstrate so exquisitely, Welch’s deepest interest is still in the way cornbread crumbs are just another by-product of real sadness and alienation. It’s a brilliant record.
Und Kitty Empire im Observer: „Certainly, all the exacting, pared-down takes on traditional music here – country, bluegrass, Dylan – speak of artists distilling their influences until the most spartan and flab-free iteration results. And yet, on repeated listens The Harrow & the Harvest feels more mysterious than this asceticism suggests. It is replete with events alluded to, but unsung. Many of their albums are like this – carefully written to sound like folk manuscripts handed down across the ages, illuminated by Rawlings’s eloquent guitar. And yet The Harrow is especially full of drama that occurs off-camera. It is the best kind of record: one that lures you in and soothes you with harmonies and banjo, only to leave you wondering what the hell just happened.
https://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=137346722&m=137328751
a comment on NPR: I love Gillian Welch and David Rawlings is every bit her equal. I cannot wait for this album! I am still embarrassed by my not recognizing her at a car wash after talking with her about her cool Neil Young T shirt she bought in NYC in the early 80’s.