Folk Singer Welch Reveals Her Musical Depth, Range

At a time when quality songwriting in pop music is so rare that few club acts can hold an audience’s interest for even a fraction of the usual hourlong set, Gillian Welch did something quite remarkable Wednesday at the Troubadour.

After a deeply absorbing hour of her spare, Appalachian-style tales of troubled times and tortured souls, Welch and her partner David Rawlings announced they were going to take a brief break and then return for another hour.

This wasn’t a case of coming back for a second performance in front of a different audience, which would mean they could replay some of the best songs from the opening set.

Welch and Rawlings performed 12 additional songs for the same crowd in a second hour that was just as commanding as the first. The marathon proved to be a revealing demonstration of the richness, depth and range of Welch’s music.

In the process, she mocked the lingering criticism that she is a one-dimensional artist whose strength is as an archivist. Pop music is filled with artists who sell millions of records because they can come close to duplicating the creations of others, but whose work is inherently hollow.

That’s not the case with Welch. Whether she is singing her own songs from her two albums, which she did mostly Wednesday, or in turning to other writers, such as Jimmy Driftwood and Eric Andersen, she brings a personal stamp and authentic emotion to the work that is both commanding and inspired.

Welch, who records for ALMO Sounds and is now based in Nashville, is not the first to draw on ‘30s and ‘40s American folk, country and bluegrass roots for inspiration. Bob Dylan and Beck both benefit from some of the same influences, from bluegrass legends the Stanley Brothers to country pioneer Jimmie Rodgers.

The difference is that Dylan and Beck translate the emotions and commentary of this tradition into the musical language of their respective generations, which was rock ‘n’ roll for Dylan in the ‘60s and a sort of customized hip-hop for Beck in the ‘90s.

In the songs that she co-writes with guitarist Rawlings and in her own deliberate, high-pitched vocals, Welch speaks in the musical language of those ‘30s and ‘40s influences. That makes for a jarring juxtaposition, and it can lead casual listeners to miss the artistry at work.

The length of Wednesday’s set worked in Welch’s favor because it demonstrated better than either of her albums the broadness of her vision.

With Rawlings supplying exquisite guitar touches and lovely vocal harmony, she moved from the relatively mainstream commercial ‘50s country of “Paper Wings” to the timeless isolation of “Orphan Girl” to the sexy, rockabilly rejoicing of “Honey Now” to the gospel uplift of “Rock of Ages” to the bluesy despair of “My Morphine.”

By the end, Welch’s set suggested that she may be blessed with the strongest sense of pure personal vision and musical conviction of any female to surface in the broad folk-country spectrum since Emmylou Harris came on the scene in the ‘70s. There are few higher standards in all of contemporary pop.

Mark “Stew” Stewart, the leader of the edgy Los Angeles pop group the Negro Problem, opened the evening with a collection of songs that combined striking images with provocative ideas, injecting elements of wit and warmth to avoid the condescending tone that mars so much social commentary these days.

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* Gillian Welch plays tonight at McCabe’s, 3101 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, 8 p.m. $17.50. (310) 828-4497.