Sep 2

Sep 2 Revelator, by Gillian Welch

Time’s a revelator, as well as a healer

This song choice came towards the end of my friend’s first round of chemo (see my About page for more info) when they were feeling pretty wretched. I wanted something that would wash warmly over them, but which might be new to them and spark a little interest during their interminable days of awfulness. I find this song very introspective and that seemed to suit the situation at that time. It’s another song from the Country genre, which I hadn’t realised was so deeply in my soul, but is presumably thanks to my mum playing a Tammy Wynette tape incessantly when I was growing up!

How do they do that?

So what is it that creates a laid back and soothing atmosphere in this music? Well, of course, the tempo is very slow, but there must be more to it than that. I wrote in my blog piece on Finlay Quaye’s, “Love Gets Sweeter Every Day,” that the accents in reggae music come on the 2nd and 4th beats of the bar, creating a lackadaisical effect. And whilst “Revelator” is clearly nothing like reggae, it too employs that technique of shifting the accents from the traditional strong 1st and 3rd beats to what would usually be the weaker beats of the bar. So when I listen to this piece, I sense the 1st beat but then feel my body flop (full head, neck and shoulder loll) onto the 2nd beat with that motion repeated to loll heavily again on the 4th beat. This phrasing is felt during the verse and much of the instrumental sections (and there is a lot of instrumental in this song). For me, it feels like time lagging and dragging and this is emphasised further by the guitar solos that don’t really go anywhere. In the instrumental section at the end of the piece, the repeated notes in the guitar can’t quite seem to move on and grind and clash at times against the harmony. This piece is actually far from relaxing then in places, but each time the chorus appears we do get a sense of arrival and healing, perhaps. The accents fall a little more definitely on the 1st and 3rd beats, the melody and the singing become freer and, whilst there is a restlessness in the final chord of each chorus and indeed at the end of the song, it’s no longer tension that is created but an acceptance that time does not end and resolve, but keeps on moving forward. I have no idea what the songwriters meant when they wrote the words, but one of the many great things about music is that it can mean to you whatever you want it to. I hear: time moves on and we can leave old troubles behind. There is something deeply reassuring in that.

Hope you enjoy it or feel inspired to listen to something new today.

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