Gillian Welch's 1996 Grammy nominated debut release. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, this was the album that introduced the world to Gillian's stripped-down, honest and raw music, deeply rooted in the timelesstraditions of rural America and sung in her remarkable keening voice. Gillian writes with what at first seems to be childlike simplicity, but on closer listening, you realize you are in the presence of an old soul, one who knows the blue highway of the heart?It is a gift to all of us who need music to be more than justbackground noise. Gillian Welch has captured the ethos of mountain music on Revival in a way that few lowlanders have managed, and that's just a little disconcerting. Outsiders aren't supposed to be able to infiltrate tight-knit clans. Producer T-Bone Burnett creates intimacy by recording Welch live with a small cast of supporting players, including Welch's partner, David Rawlings. While many of the songs are built around duo acoustic guitars and two-part harmonies, Burnett spices up a few of them up with some neat tricks, mixing an upright bass above the vocals on "Pass You By" and getting a fat, dirty sound out of three instruments. Welch's vocals, meanwhile, are stoical and matter-of-fact as her songs, which are infused with a repressed dread and contrition that's utterly convincing. White gospel tunes such as "Orphan Girl" and "By the Mark" feel as if they were culled from hymnals, yet they were written when Clinton, not Coolidge, was president. -- Steven Stolder