Soul Journey is the fourth studio album by Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...

. As with all of her previous releases, it is a collaboration with David Rawlings

David Rawlings

David Todd Rawlings is a professional guitarist and singer. He is best known as the longtime musical partner of bluegrass singer-songwriter Gillian Welch.David attended the Berklee College of Music and studied with guitar professor Lauren Passarelli....

.

In their preceding work, Time (The Revelator)

Time (The Revelator)

Time is the third full length album by Gillian Welch. All songs were written by Welch together with David Rawlings and were recorded in Nashville, Tennessee...

, Welch and Rawlings had experimented with using only acoustic guitar and banjo as accompaniment. With Soul Journey, they return to the more diverse and modern instrumentation of their early work, employing electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

, organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, and drums

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

. As with Welch's other works, a strong American roots

American Roots Music

American Roots Music is a 2001 multi-part documentary film that explores the historical roots of American Roots music through footage and performances by the creators of the movement: Folk, Country, Blues, Gospel, Bluegrass, and many others....

 influence can be heard. This is perhaps most clear on the track, "No One Knows My Name", which borrows the melody from the Carter Family

Carter Family

The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. They were the first vocal group to become country...

 classic, "Motherless Children" and in Welch's reading of the traditional, "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor".

Track listing

All songs written by Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...

 and David Rawlings

David Rawlings

David Todd Rawlings is a professional guitarist and singer. He is best known as the longtime musical partner of bluegrass singer-songwriter Gillian Welch.David attended the Berklee College of Music and studied with guitar professor Lauren Passarelli....

 unless otherwise noted.

1. "Look at Miss Ohio" – 4:16
2. "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor" (traditional with additional lyrics by Welch) – 2:45
3. "Wayside/Back in Time" – 3:28
4. "I Had a Real Good Mother and Father" (traditional with additional lyrics by Welch) – 3:14
5. "One Monkey" – 5:36
6. "No One Knows My Name" (Welch, Rawlings, traditional melody) – 3:16
7. "Lowlands" – 3:19
8. "One Little Song" (Welch) – 3:12
9. "I Made a Lovers Prayer" – 5:03
10. "Wrecking Ball" – 4:56

Charts

Year	Chart	Peak position
2003	Billboard Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...	1
2003	The Billboard 200	107
2003	Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...  Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels...	3
2003	FolkDJ-L Folk Radio Airplay	5
2003	UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	65

External links

• Review of "Look at Miss Ohio" by David Dye for NPR's Day to Day
  Day to Day
  Day to Day was a one-hour weekday American radio newsmagazine distributed by National Public Radio , and produced by NPR in collaboration with Slate. Madeleine Brand served as host since 2006...
  
  .
• Gillian Welch Interview for Austin City Limits
  Austin City Limits
  Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...