david rawlings

David Rawlings (from the album Poor David’s Almanack available on Acony Records)
Leaving the Machine age behind him, David Rawlings foregoes a full band (David Rawlings Machine), putting just his name on the album and delivering words and music steeped in the American musical history of storytelling. Many of the tunes on Poor David’s Almanack were crafted using traditional songs and stories, backing the tales with electric and acoustic sound. Recorded at Woodland Studios in East Nashville, David Rawlings was joined by musical life partner Gillian Welch as well as former (Willie Watson) and current (Setch Kecor, Critter Fuqua) members of Old Crow Medicine Show, Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes), Brittany Haas (Crooked Still), and Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers). The warmth of Poor David’s Almanackspeaks to the appreciation of the musicians for their instruments.
The voices of David Rawlings and Gillian Welch come together in harmony as easy as the swaying rhythm in “Yup” as the track rides on one riff while the saw playing of Austin Hoke circles the song. The album opens boarding “Midnight Train” as the groove on Poor David’s Almanack is set by strings, the model continues on the staggered strumming of “Airplane”, the picking of “Put ‘Em Up Solid”, and chord chops of “Come on Over My House”. Hand claps and harmony are the foundation for the folk tale of “Money is the Meat in the Coconut” as Poor David’s Almanack turns back the pages of time for the sepia toned “Lindsey Button” and the creation story in “Good God a Woman” while David Rawlings plugs in to showcase his six-string prowess in “Guitar Man” and beats darkness into the dangers of leaving home for “Cumberland Gap”.