A spring scale measures the weight of an object (according to the operational definition)

This top-fuel dragster can accelerate from zero to 160 kilometres per hour (99 mph) in 0.86 seconds. This is a horizontal acceleration of 5.3 g. Combined with the vertical g-force in the stationary case the Pythagorean theorem yields a g-force of 5.4 g. It is this g-force that causes the driver's weight if one uses the operational definition. If one uses the gravitational definition, the driver's weight is unchanged by the motion of the car.

In law and commerce, including product packaging and nutrition labeling, weight means mass.^[1] In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity.^[2][3] Its magnitude (a scalar quantity), often denoted by an italic letter W, is the product of the mass m of the object and the magnitude of the local gravitational acceleration g;^[4] thus: W = mg. When considered a vector, weight is often denoted by a bold letter W. The unit of measurement for weight is that of force, which in the International System of Units (SI) is the newton. For example, an object with a mass of one kilogram has a weight of about 9.8 newtons on the surface of the Earth, about one-sixth as much on the Moon, and very nearly zero when in deep space far away from all bodies imparting gravitational influence.

In the 20th century, the Newtonian concepts of gravitation were challenged by relativity. Einstein's principle of equivalence put all observers, accelerating in space far from gravitating bodies, or held in place against gravitation near such a body, on the same footing. This led to an ambiguity as to what exactly is meant by the "force of gravity" and (in consequence) by weight. The ambiguities introduced by relativity led, starting in the 1960s, to considerable debate in the teaching community as how to define weight for their students. The choice was a Newtonian definition of weight as the force for an object at rest on the ground due to gravity, or an operational definition defined by the act of weighing.^[3] In the operational definition, weight becomes zero in conditions of weightlessness such as Earth orbit or free fall in vacuum. In such situations, the Newtonian view is that there remains a force due to gravity which is not measured (thus causing an apparent weight of zero), while the Einsteinian view is that there never exists a measurable force due to gravity (even on the ground), but rather that, in free-fall, no force is measured because the ground (or the scale) does not exert the mechanical force that is ordinarily observed as "weight."

In everyday usage the term "weight" is commonly used to mean mass, which scientifically is an entirely different concept.^[1] On the surface of the Earth, the acceleration due to gravity (the "strength of gravity") is approximately constant; this means that the ratio of the weight force of a motionless object on the surface of the Earth to its mass is almost independent of its location, so that an object's weight force can stand as a proxy for its mass, and vice versa.

History[link]

Discussion of the concepts of heaviness (weight) and lightness (levity) date back to the ancient Greek philosophers. These were typically viewed as inherent properties of objects. Plato described weight as the natural tendency of objects to seek their kin. To Aristotle weight and levity represented the tendency to restore the natural order of the basic elements: air, earth, fire and water. He ascribed absolute weight to earth and absolute levity to fire. Archimedes saw weight as a quality opposed to buoyancy, with the conflict between the two determining if an object sinks or floats. The first operational definition of weight was given by Euclid, who defined weight as: "weight is the heaviness or lightness of one thing, compared to another, as measured by a balance."^[3]

According to Aristotle, weight was the direct cause of the falling motion of an object, the speed of the falling object was supposed to be directly proportionate to the weight of the object. As medieval scholars discovered that in practice the speed of a falling object increased with time, this prompted a change to the concept of weight to maintain this cause effect relationship. Weight was split into a "still weight" or pondus, which remained constant, and the actual gravity or gravitas, which changed as the object fell. The concept of gravitas was eventually replaced by Jean Buridan's impetus, a precursor to momentum.^[3]

The rise of the Copernican view of the world led to the resurgence of the Platonic idea that like objects attract but in the context of heavenly bodies. In the 17th century, Galileo made significant advances in the concept of weight. He proposed a way to measure the difference between the weight of a moving object and an object at rest. Ultimately, he concluded weight was proportionate to the amount of matter of an object, and not the speed of motion as supposed by the Aristotelean view of physics.^[3]

Newton[link]

The introduction of Newton's laws of motion and the development of Newton's law of universal gravitation led to considerable further development of the concept of weight. Weight became fundamentally separate from mass. Mass was identified as a fundamental property of objects connected to their inertia, while weight became identified with the force of gravity on an object and therefore dependent on the context of the object. In particular, Newton considered weight to be relative to another object causing the gravitational pull, e.g. the weight of the Earth towards the Sun.^[3]

Newton considered time and space to be absolute. This allowed him to consider concepts as true position and true velocity.^{[clarification needed]} Newton also recognized that weight as measured by the action of weighing was affected by environmental factors such as buoyancy. He considered this a false weight induced by imperfect measurement conditions, for which he introduced the term apparent weight as compared to the true weight defined by gravity.^[3]

Although Newtonian physics made a clear distinction between weight and mass, the term weight continued to be commonly used when people meant mass. This led the 3rd General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) of 1901 to officially declare "The word weight denotes a quantity of the same nature as a force: the weight of a body is the product of its mass and the acceleration due to gravity", thus distinguishing it from mass for official usage.

Relativity[link]

In the 20th century, the Newtonian concepts of absolute time and space were challenged by relativity. Einstein's principle of equivalence put all observers, moving or accelerating, on the same footing. This led to an ambiguity as to what exactly is meant by the force of gravity and weight. A scale in an accelerating elevator cannot be distinguished from a scale in a gravitational field. Gravitational force and weight thereby became essentially frame-dependent quantities. This prompted the abandonment of the concept as superfluous in the fundamental sciences such as physics and chemistry. Nonetheless, the concept remained important in the teaching of physics. The ambiguities introduced by relativity led, starting in the 1960s, to considerable debate in the teaching community as how to define weight for their students, choosing between a nominal definition of weight as the force due to gravity or an operational definition defined by the act of weighing.^[3]

Definitions[link]

Several definitions exist for weight, not all of which are equivalent.^[4][5][6][7]

Gravitational definition[link]

The most common definition of weight found in introductory physics textbooks defines weight as the force exerted on a body by gravity.^[2][7] This is often expressed in the formula W = mg, where W is the weight, m the mass of the object, and g gravitational acceleration.

In 1901, the 3rd General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) established this as their official definition of weight:

"The word weight denotes a quantity of the same nature^{[Note 1]} as a force: the weight of a body is the product of its mass and the acceleration due to gravity."

— Resolution 2 of the 3rd General Conference on Weights and Measures^[9][10]

This resolution defines weight as a vector, since force is a vector quantity. However, some textbooks also take weight to be a scalar by defining:

"The weight W of a body is equal to the magnitude F_g of the gravitational force on the body."^[11]

The gravitational acceleration varies from place to place. Sometimes, it is simply taken to a have a standard value of 9.80665 m/s², which gives the standard weight.^[9]

The force whose magnitude is equal to mg newtons is also known as the m kilogram weight (which term is abbreviated to kg-wt)^[12]

Operational definition[link]

In the operational definition, the weight of an object is the force measured by the operation of weighing it, which is the force it exerts on its support.^[5] This can make a considerable difference, depending on the details; for example, an object in free fall exerts little if any force on its support, a situation that is commonly referred to as weightlessness. However, being in free fall does not affect the weight according to the gravitational definition. Therefore, the operational definition is sometimes refined by requiring that the object be at rest.^{[citation needed]} However, this raises the issue of defining "at rest" (usually being at rest with respect to the Earth is implied by using standard gravity^{[citation needed]}). In the operational definition, the weight of an object at rest on the surface of the Earth is lessened by the effect of the centrifugal force from the Earth's rotation.

The operational definition, as usually given, does not explicitly exclude the effects of buoyancy, which reduces the measured weight of an object when it is immersed in a fluid such as air or water. As a result, a floating balloon or an object floating in water might be said to have zero weight.

ISO definition[link]

In the ISO International standard ISO 80000-4(2006),^[13] describing the basic physical quantities and units in mechanics as a part of the International standard ISO/IEC 80000, the definition of weight is given as:

Definition

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): F_g = m g \,

,

where m is mass and g is local acceleration of free fall.

Remarks

• It should be noted that, when the reference frame is Earth, this quantity comprises not only the local gravitational force, but also the local centrifugal force due to the rotation of the Earth, a force which varies with latitude.
• The effect of atmospheric buoyancy is excluded in the weight.
• In common parlance, the name "weight" continues to be used where "mass" is meant, but this practice is deprecated.

— ISO 80000-4 (2006)

The definition is dependent on the chosen frame of reference. When the chosen frame is co-moving with the object in question then this definition precisely agrees with the operational definition.^[6] If the specified frame is the surface of the Earth, the weight according to the ISO and gravitational definitions differ only by the centrifugal effects due to the rotation of the Earth.

Apparent weight[link]

In many real world situations the act of weighing may produce a result that differs from the ideal value provided by the definition used. This is usually referred to as the apparent weight of the object. A common example of this is the effect of buoyancy, when an object is immersed in a fluid the displacement of the fluid will cause an upward force on the object, making it appear lighter when weighed on a scale.^[14] The apparent weight may be similarly affected by levitation and mechanical suspension. When the gravitational definition of weight is used, the operational weight measured by an accelerating scale is often also referred to as the apparent weight.^[15]

Weight and mass[link]

In modern scientific usage, weight and mass are fundamentally different quantities: mass is an "extrinsic" (extensive) property of matter, whereas weight is a force that results from the action of gravity on matter: it measures how strongly the force of gravity pulls on that matter. However, in most practical everyday situations the word "weight" is used when, strictly, "mass" is meant.^[1][16] For example, most people would say that an object "weighs one kilogram", even though the kilogram is a unit of mass.

The scientific distinction between mass and weight is unimportant for many practical purposes because the strength of gravity is almost the same everywhere on the surface of the Earth. In a uniform gravitational field, the gravitational force exerted on an object (its weight) is directly proportional to its mass. For example, object A weighs 10 times as much as object B, so therefore the mass of object A is 10 times greater than that of object B. This means that an object's mass can be measured indirectly by its weight, and so, for everyday purposes, weighing (using a weighing scale) is an entirely acceptable way of measuring mass. Similarly, a balance measures mass indirectly by comparing the weight of the measured item to that of an object(s) of known mass. Since the measured item and the comparison mass are in virtually the same location, so experiencing the same gravitational field, the effect of varying gravity does not affect the comparison or the resulting measurement.

The Earth's gravitational field is not uniform but can vary by as much as 0.5%^[17] at different locations on Earth (see Earth's gravity). These variations alter the relationship between weight and mass, and must be taken into account in high precision weight measurements that are intended to indirectly measure mass. Spring scales, which measure local weight, must be calibrated at the location at which the objects will be used to show this standard weight, to be legal for commerce.^{[citation needed]}

This table shows the variation of acceleration due to gravity (and hence the variation of weight) at various locations on the Earth's surface.^[18]

The historic use of "weight" for "mass" also persists in some scientific terminology – for example, the chemical terms "atomic weight", "molecular weight", and "formula weight", can still be found rather than the preferred "atomic mass" etc.

In a different gravitational field, for example, on the surface of the Moon, an object can have a significantly different weight than on Earth. The gravity on the surface of the Moon is only about one-sixth as strong as on the surface of the Earth. A one-kilogram mass is still a one-kilogram mass (as mass is an extrinsic property of the object) but the downward force due to gravity, and therefore its weight, is only one-sixth of what the object would have on Earth. So a man of mass 180 pounds weighs only about 30 pounds-force when visiting the Moon.

SI units[link]

In most modern scientific work, physical quantities are measured in SI units. The SI unit of weight is the same as that of force: the newton (N) – a derived unit which can also be expressed in SI base units as kg·m/s² (kilograms times meters per second squared).^[16]

In commercial and everyday use, the term "weight" is usually used to mean mass, and the verb "to weigh" means "to determine the mass of" or "to have a mass of". Used in this sense, the proper SI unit is the kilogram (kg).^[16]

Pound and other non-SI units[link]

In United States customary units, the pound can be either a unit of force or a unit of mass. Related units used in some distinct, separate subsystems of units include the poundal and the slug. The poundal is defined as the force necessary to accelerate an object of one-pound mass at 1 ft/s², and is equivalent to about 1/32.2 of a pound-force. The slug is defined as the amount of mass that accelerates at 1 ft/s² when one pound-force is exerted on it, and is equivalent to about 32.2 pounds (mass).

The kilogram-force is a non-SI unit of force, defined as the force exerted by a one kilogram mass in standard Earth gravity (equal to 9.80665 newtons exactly). The dyne is the cgs unit of force and is not a part of SI, while weights measured in the cgs unit of mass, the gram, remain a part of SI.

Sensation of weight[link]

The sensation of weight is caused by the force exerted by fluids in the vestibular system, a three-dimensional set of tubes in the inner ear.^{[dubious – discuss]} It is actually the sensation of g-force, regardless of whether this is due to being stationary in the presence of gravity, or, if the person is in motion, the result of any other forces acting on the body such as in the case of acceleration or deceleration of a lift, or centrifugal forces when turning sharply.

Measuring weight[link]

A weighbridge, used for weighing trucks

Weight is commonly measured using one of two methods. A spring scale or hydraulic or pneumatic scale measures local weight, the local force of gravity on the object (strictly apparent weight force). Since the local force of gravity can vary by up to 0.5% at different locations, spring scales will measure slightly different weights for the same object (the same mass) at different locations. To standardize weights, scales are always calibrated to read the weight an object would have at a nominal standard gravity of 9.80665 m/s² (approx. 32.174 ft/s²). However, this calibration is done at the factory. When the scale is moved to another location on Earth, the force of gravity will be different, causing a slight error. So to be highly accurate, and legal for commerce, spring scales must be re-calibrated at the location at which they will be used.

A balance on the other hand, compares the weight of an unknown object in one scale pan to the weight of standard masses in the other, using a lever mechanism – a lever-balance. The standard masses are often referred to, non-technically, as "weights". Since any variations in gravity will act equally on the unknown and the known weights, a lever-balance will indicate the same value at any location on Earth. Therefore, balance "weights" are usually calibrated and marked in mass units, so the lever-balance measures mass by comparing the Earth's attraction on the unknown object and standard masses in the scale pans. In the absence of a gravitational field, away from planetary bodies (e.g. space), a lever-balance would not work, but on the Moon, for example, it would give the same reading as on Earth. Some balances can be marked in weight units, but since the weights are calibrated at the factory for standard gravity, the balance will measure standard weight, i.e. what the object would weigh at standard gravity, not the actual local force of gravity on the object.

If the actual force of gravity on the object is needed, this can be calculated by multiplying the mass measured by the balance by the acceleration due to gravity – either standard gravity (for everyday work) or the precise local gravity (for precision work). Tables of the gravitational acceleration at different locations can be found on the web.

Gross weight is a term that generally is found in commerce or trade applications, and refers to the total weight of a product and its packaging. Conversely, net weight refers to the weight of the product alone, discounting the weight of its container or packaging; and tare weight is the weight of the packaging alone.

Relative weights on the Earth and other celestial bodies[link]

The table below shows comparative gravitational accelerations at the surface of the Sun, the Earth's moon, each of the planets in the solar system. The “surface” is taken to mean the cloud tops of the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). For the Sun, the surface is taken to mean the photosphere. The values in the table have not been de-rated for the centrifugal effect of planet rotation (and cloud-top wind speeds for the gas giants) and therefore, generally speaking, are similar to the actual gravity that would be experienced near the poles.

See also[link]

• Body weight

Notes[link]

References[link]

Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch performing at MerleFest in 2007
Background information
Born	(1967-10-02) October 2, 1967 (age 44) New York City, New York, U.S.
Origin	New York, U.S. (born in); moved to LA, California with family; Nashville, Tennessee (currently resides)
Genres	Bluegrass, Americana, Country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	singing, acoustic guitar, banjo, drums
Associated acts	Dave Rawlings Machine
Website	gillianwelch.com
Notable instruments
1956 Gibson J-50

Gillian Welch (/ˈɡɪliən ˈwɛltʃ/; born October 2, 1967) 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 reminiscent of past rural forms".^[1]

Welch and Rawlings have released five critically acclaimed albums. Their 1996 debut, Revival, and the 2001 release Time (The Revelator), received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Their 2003 album, Soul Journey, introduced electric guitar, drums and a more upbeat sound to their body of work. After a gap of eight years, they released their fifth studio album, The Harrow & The Harvest, in 2011.

Welch was an associate producer and performed on two songs of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, a platinum album that won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. Welch has collaborated and recorded with distinguished musicians such as Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar, Emmylou Harris, The Decemberists, and Ani DiFranco. Welch and Rawlings perform at many music festivals.

Early life[link]

Gillian^{[a 1]} Howard Welch was born on October 2, 1967 in New York City, and was adopted by Ken and Mitzie Welch, comedy and music entertainers.^[1] Her biological mother was a freshman in college, and her father was a musician visiting New York City.^[1][2][3] Welch has speculated that her biological father could have been one of her favorite musicians, and she later discovered from her adoptive parents that he was a drummer.^[1][2][3] Alec Wilkinson of The New Yorker stated that "from an address they had been given, it appeared that her mother ... may have grown up in the mountains of North Carolina".^[1] When Welch was three, her adoptive parents moved to Los Angeles to write music for The Carol Burnett Show. They also appeared on The Tonight Show.^[1]

	"Orphan Girl" noicon The first track on Gillian Welch's first album Revival. This song exemplifies Welch and Rawlings' minimal arrangements and Welch's lyrics about outcasts
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

As a youngster, Welch was introduced to the music of American folk singers Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Carter Family. She performed folk songs with her peers at the Westland Elementary School in Los Angeles.^[1][4] Welch later attended Crossroads School, a high school in Santa Monica, California. While in high school, a local television program featured her as a student who "excelled at everything she did".^[1]

When a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Welch played bass in a goth band, and drums in a psychedelic surf band.^[1] In college, a roommate played an album by the bluegrass band The Stanley Brothers, and she had an epiphany:

The first song came on and I just stood up and I kind of walked into the other room as if I was in a tractor beam and stood there in front of the stereo. It was just as powerful as the electric stuff, and it was songs I'd grown up singing. All of a sudden I'd found my music.^[5]

After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in photography, Welch attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she majored in songwriting.^[6] During her two years studying at Berklee, Welch gained confidence as a performer.^[1][6] Welch met her music partner David Rawlings at a successful audition for Berklee's only country band.^[7][8]

Career[link]

Rawlings and Welch performing in Seattle in 2009

Upon finishing college in 1992, Welch and Rawlings moved to Nashville, Tennessee.^[9] She recalled, "I looked at my record collection and saw that all the music I loved had been made in Nashville—Bill Monroe, Dylan, The Stanley Brothers, Neil Young—so I moved there. Not ever thinking I was thirty years too late."^[1] Rawlings soon followed. In Nashville, after singing "Long Black Veil", the two first realized that their voices harmonized well and they started to perform as a duo.^[1] They never considered using a working name, so the duo were simply billed as "Gillian Welch".^[1] A year after moving to Nashville, Welch found a manager, Denise Stiff, who already managed Alison Krauss. Both Welch and Stiff ignored frequent advice that Welch should stop playing with Rawlings and join a band.^[1][4] They eventually signed a recording contract with Almo Sounds.^[4] Following a performance opening for Peter Rowan at the Station Inn, producer T-Bone Burnett expressed interest in recording an album. Burnett did not plan to disturb Welch's and Rawlings' preference for minimal instrumentation, and Welch agreed to take him on as a producer.^[10]

[edit] Revival

For the recording sessions of Welch's debut, Revival, Burnett wanted to recapture the bare sound of Welch's live performance.^[10] Welch recalled, "That first week was really intense. It was just T-Bone, the engineer, and Dave and myself. We got so inside our little world. There was very little distance between our singing and playing. The sound was very immediate. It was so light and small."^[10] Later, they recorded several more songs and played with an expanded group of musicians; guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee James Burton, bassist Roy Huskey, Jr., and veteran session drummers Jim Keltner, and Buddy Harman.^[10]

The album was released in April 1996 to positive reviews. Mark Deming of Allmusic called it a "superb debut" and wrote, "Welch's debts to artists of the past are obvious and clearly acknowledged, but there's a maturity, intelligence, and keen eye for detail in her songs you wouldn't expect from someone simply trying to ape the Carter Family."^[11] Bill Friskics-Warren of No Depression praised the album as "breathtakingly austere evocations of rural culture".^[10] The Arlington Heights, Illinois Daily Herald's Mark Guarino observed that Revival was "cheered and scrutinized as a staunch revivalist of Depression-era music only because her originals sounded so much like that era." He attributed this to the biblical imagery of the lyrics, Burnett's threadbare production, and the plainly-sung bleakness in Welch's vocals.^[12] Ann Powers of Rolling Stone gave Revival a lukewarm review and criticized Welch for not singing of her own experiences, and "manufacturing emotion."^[13] Robert Christgau echoed Powers: Welch "just doesn't have the voice, eye, or way with words to bring her simulation off."^[14] Revival was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, but lost to Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad.^[15]

[edit] Hell Among The Yearlings

The duo's 1998 Hell Among the Yearlings continued the rustic and dark themes; the songs' subject matter varies from a female character killing a rapist, a mining accident, a murder ballad, and an ode to morphine before death.^[16] Like Revival, Hell Among The Yearlings featured a sparse style that focused on Rawlings and Welch's voices and guitars.^[16][17]

Gillian Welch performing at the 2007 New Orleans Jazz Fest

The album also received favorable reviews. Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer observed that Welch "inhabits a role so completely, the fiction separating character and audience disappears".^[18] Thom Owens (Allmusic) stated that the album "lacks some of the focus" of Revival, but is "a thoroughly satisfying second album" and proof that her debut was not a fluke.^[19] No Depression's Farnum Brown commended the live and "immediate feel" of the album, Welch's clawhammer banjo,^[20] and Rawlings' harmonies.^[15] Similar to Revival, Welch was praised for reflecting influences such as the Stanley Brothers, but still managing to create an original sound,^[17] while Chris Herrington from Minneapolis's City Pages criticized the songs' lack of authenticity. He wrote "Welch doesn't write folk songs; she writes folk songs about writing folk songs."^[21]

[edit] O Brother, Where Art Thou?

David Rawlings, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss performing at the 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival

Welch sang two songs and served as an associate producer for the Burnett-produced soundtrack to the 2000 film of the same name.^[22] She shared vocals with Alison Krauss on a rendition of the gospel song "I'll Fly Away." Dave McKenna of The Washington Post praised their version: the singers "soar together."^[23] Burnett and Welch wrote additional lyrics for the song "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," sung by Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Krauss. The song is an elaboration of an old Mississippi tune discovered by Alan Lomax, and was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.^[24] The platinum album won the 2002 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The surprise success of the soundtrack gave Welch a career boost.^[25][26] Welch also made a cameo appearance in the film.^[27]

[edit] Time (The Revelator)

When Universal Music Group purchased Almo Sounds, Welch began her own independent label, Acony Records (named for the Appalachian wildflower, Acony Bell, subject of the eponymous song on Revival).^[4][12] Rawlings produced the first release on Welch's new label, the 2001 album Time (The Revelator).^[12][28] All but one song on the album was recorded in the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville.^[29] "I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll" was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium in the recording sessions for the concert film Down from the Mountain.

David Rawlings and Gillian Welch performing at the 2009 Newport Folk Festival

Welch has said the album is about American history, rock 'n' roll, and country music.^[30] There are songs about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Titanic Disaster, John Henry, and Elvis Presley.^[29] Time continues Welch and Rawlings' style of mellow and sparse arrangements. Welch explained, "As opposed to being little tiny folk songs or traditional songs, they're really tiny rock songs. They're just performed in this acoustic setting. In our heads we went electric without changing instruments."^[31]

Time (The Revelator) received extensive critical praise, most of which focused on the evolution of lyrics from mountain ballads.^[22][31][32] For Michael Shannon Friedman of The Charleston Gazette, "Welch's soul-piercing, backwoods quaver has always been a treasure, but on this record her songwriting is absolutely stunning."^[32] Critics compare the last track, the 15-minute "I Dream a Highway", to classics by Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Zac Johnson of Allmusic described I Dream... as akin to "sweetly dozing in the [river] current like Huck and Jim's Mississippi River afternoons".^[31][32] No Depression's Grant Alden wrote, "Welch and Rawlings have gathered ... fragments from across the rich history of American music and reset them as small, subtle jewels adorning their own keenly observed, carefully constructed language."^[22] Time finished thirteenth in the 2001 Village Voice Pazz & Jop music critic poll.^[33] Time (The Revelator) appeared in best of decade lists of Rolling Stone, Paste, Uncut, The Irish Times, and the Ottawa Citizen.^{[28][34][35][36][37]} The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, but lost to Bob Dylan's Love and Theft.^[38] Time peaked at #7 on the Billboard Independent Album chart.^[39]

The Revelator Collection DVD was released in 2002. It featured live performances and music videos of songs from Time, and some covers. The concert footage was filmed in 2001, and the music videos included Welch and Rawlings performing three songs at RCA Studio B. No Depression's Barry Mazor praised the DVD as an accompaniment for Time, calling it "one last exclamation point on that memorable and important project".^[40]

[edit] Soul Journey

	"Wrecking Ball" noicon The final track on Gillian Welch's fourth album Soul Journey. The electric guitar and drums represent a new sound for Welch and David Rawlings
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

For the 2003 release, Soul Journey, Welch and Rawlings explored new territory. Welch said: "I wanted to make it a happier record. Out of our four records, I thought this might be the one where you're driving down the road listening to it on a sunny summer day."^[41] Rawlings again produced the record. The album also reflected a change in the typically sparse instrumentation: Welch and Rawlings introduced a dobro, violin, electric bass and drums, and Welch later said, "Everything's not supposed to sound the same, you want it to reflect change and growth."^[7]

Justin Townes Earle & Gillian Welch performing in 2009

In three songs of Soul Journey, for the first time Welch and Rawlings recorded their own versions of traditional folk songs.^[42] On the original compositions, Welch's lyrics are more autobiographical than previous albums.^[12]

The album received mixed reviews. Allmusic's Zac Johnson wrote that it was "too casual and off-the-cuff", but called it a "wonderful, dusty summertime front-porch album, full of whiskey drawls and sly smiles, floorboard stomps and screen-door creaks".^[43] Jon Caramanica of Rolling Stone criticized the slower songs as stagnant, but complimented the upbeat songs.^[44] Soul Journey also garnered significant acclaim. John Harris of Mojo magazine described the album as "pretty much perfect", and Uncut's Barney Hoskyns favorably compared it to Bob Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes.^[45][46] Will Hermes of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Welch has "never sounded deeper, realer, or sexier."^[47] Soul Journey peaked at #107 on the Billboard charts, and reached #3 for Independent Albums.^[48]

Dave Rawlings Machine[link]

Welch and Rawlings continued their partnership in the band Dave Rawlings Machine. Welch co-wrote five of the songs with Rawlings, and provided guitar and harmony vocals.^[49][50] Andy Gill of The Independent described the 2009 debut album A Friend of a Friend as "akin to one of Welch's albums, but with the balance of their harmonies swapped to favour Rawlings' voice".^[51] Although ostensibly Rawlings' first solo album, Alex Ramon of PopMatters noted the similarities to Welch albums.^[50] Paste Magazine's Stephen Deusner praised A Friend of a Friend for incorporating "a wide swath of traditional American music," comments echoed by Rolling Stone's Will Hermes and in the PopMatters piece.^[50][52][53]

[edit] The Harrow & The Harvest

In a 2007 feature in The Guardian, critic John Harris expressed frustration that there had not been a Gillian Welch release in four years.^[54] Creation Records founder Alan McGee showed optimism about Welch and Rawlings testing out some new songs while opening some concerts for Rilo Kiley, and wrote in a 2009 blog entry "the long gestation period signals nothing less than a perfect album".^[55] In 2009, Rawlings said that recording for the next Gillian Welch album has started, but did not give a release date.^[56]

The Harrow & The Harvest was released on June 28, 2011.^[57] Welch attributed the long time period between releases to writer's block and dissatisfaction with initial recording attempts.^[58] She explained: "Our songcraft slipped and I really don't know why. It's not uncommon. It's something that happens to writers. It's the deepest frustration we have come through, hence the album title."^[58] The writing process involved "this endless back and forth between the two of us," Welch said, stating that "It’s our most intertwined, co-authored, jointly-composed album."^[59]

The album received praise from publications such as The Los Angeles Times, Uncut, and Rolling Stone.^[60][61][62] Thom Jurek of Allmusic wrote that the album "is stunning for its intimacy, its lack of studio artifice, its warmth and its timeless, if hard won, songcraft".^[63]

The album peaked at #20 on the US Billboard 200 and #25 on the UK Albums Chart.^[64][65]

Musical style[link]

Welch and Rawlings incorporate elements of early twentieth century music such as old time, classic country, gospel and traditional bluegrass with modern elements of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, jazz, and punk rock.^[1] The New Yorker's Alec Wilkinson maintained their musical style is "not easily classified—it is at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms".^[1]

Gillian Welch playing banjo in a performance with David Rawlings

The instrumentation on their songs is usually a simple arrangement, with Welch and Rawlings accompanying their own vocals with acoustic guitars, banjos, or a mandolin.^[1] Welch plays rhythm guitar with a 1956 Gibson J-50 (or banjo), while Rawlings plays lead on a 1935 Epiphone Olympic Guitar.^[66] The New Yorker's Wilkinson described Rawlings as a "strikingly inventive guitarist" who plays solos that are "daring melodic leaps".^[1] A review in No Depression by Andy Moore observed that "he [Rawlings] doesn't play his big, coffee-colored, hollow body Gibson so much as he squeezes, strokes, chokes and does just about everything but blow into it".^[67] Jamie Cowperthwait of Rolling Stone wrote that Rawlings' guitar playing "makes the music swell and vibrate at all the right moments."^[68]

Themes[link]

Many songs performed by Welch and Rawlings contain dark themes about social outcasts struggling against such elements as poverty, drug addiction, death, a disconnection from their family, and an unresponsive God.^[1] Despite Welch being the lead singer, several of these characters are male.^[1] Welch has commented, "To be commercial, everybody wants happy love songs. People would flat-out ask me, 'Don't you have any happy love songs?' Well, as a matter of fact, I don't. I've got songs about orphans and morphine addicts."^[9] To reflect these themes, Welch and Rawlings often employ a slow pace to their songs. Their tempo is compared to a "slow heartbeat", and Cowperthwait of Rolling Stone observed that their songs "can lull you into near-hypnosis and then make your jaw drop with one final revelation".^[1][68]

Reception[link]

Gillian Welch performing at the 2009 Newport Folk Festival

Welch has received broad critical praise. Geoffrey Himes of The Washington Post described Welch as "one of the most interesting singer-songwriters of her generation".^[69] In 2003, Tom Kielty of The Boston Globe observed that she was "quietly establishing one of the most impressive catalogs in contemporary roots music", and a 2007 piece in The Guardian by John Harris called Welch "one of the decade's greatest talents".^[54][70] Critic Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "At every turn, she demonstrates a spark and commitment that should endear her to anyone from country and folk to pop and rock fans who appreciate imagination and heart."^[71]

When Welch's first two albums came out, critics questioned the authenticity of her music, as she was raised in Southern California, but performed Appalachian themed songs.^[8][17][72] For Revival, Welch was criticized for "manufacturing emotion", and a review of Hell Among the Yearlings by Chris Herrington of City Pages stated, "Welch is someone who discovered old-time music in college and decided that her own sheltered life could never be worth writing about", and that she is "completely devoid of individuality".^[13][21] Other critics rejected the notion that her background affects the authenticity of her music. Music critic Mark Kemp defended Welch in a The New York Times piece:

The first-person protagonist of Ms. Welch’s song ("Caleb Meyer") may be a young girl from a time and place that Ms. Welch will never fully understand, but the feelings the singer expresses about rape, and the respect she displays for her chosen musical genre, are nothing if not poignantly authentic. Likewise, it matters not whether Ms. Welch has ever walked the streets of "the black dust towns of East Tennessee" about which she sings in "Miner's Refrain" because the sense of foreboding that she expresses for the men who once labored in coal mines with futile hopes of a better life comes through loud and clear.^[73]

The Wall Street Journal's Taylor Holliday echoed this: "Stingy critics give Ms. Welch a hard time because she's a California city girl, not an Appalachian coal miner's daughter. But as Lucinda or Emmylou might attest, love of the music is not a birthright, but an earned right. Listen to Ms. Welch yodel, in a tune about that no-good "gal" Morphine, and you know she's as mountain as they come." ^[17]

Influences and collaborations[link]

Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Gillian Welch at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Welch emphasizes music from a previous era as her major influence. She said that "by and large I listen to people who are dead. I'm really of the tried-and-true school. I let 50 years go by and see what's really relevant."^[72] Welch has acknowledged inspiration from several traditional country artists, including the Stanley Brothers, the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers, and the Blue Sky Boys.^[1][74] She explained her relationship with traditional music by saying, "I've never tried to be traditional. It's been a springboard for me and I love it and revere it and would not be doing what I do without the music of the Monroe Brothers, the Stanley Brothers and the Carter Family. However, it was clear I was never going to be able to do exactly that; I'm a songwriter."^[75]

In addition to the strong country influence, Welch also draws on a repertoire of such Rock 'n' Roll artists as Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground.^[1][8][76] She has noted alternative rock bands Throwing Muses, Pixies and Camper Van Beethoven "don't directly inform my music, but they're in there."^[72][76]

Welch has recorded songs with a variety of notable artists, including Ryan Adams, Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, Jay Farrar, Alison Krauss, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bright Eyes, Robyn Hitchcock, Steve Earle, Ralph Stanley, The Decemberists, Solomon Burke and Mark Knopfler.^{[7][8][52][77][78]} Welch and Rawlings' contributions on Hitchcock's album Spooked was described by Christopher Bahn of The A.V. Club as "subtle but vital".^[79] Mark Deming of Allmusic wrote that their work on Ryan Adams' album Heartbreaker "brought out the best in Adams".^[80][81]

Artists who have recorded songs written by Welch include Jimmy Buffett, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Trisha Yearwood, Joan Baez, Allison Moorer, Emmylou Harris, Miranda Lambert, and Kathy Mattea.^{[1][7][82][83][84][85]}

Performances[link]

The Dave Rawlings Machine performing at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas, 2009

Welch and Rawlings have played many music festivals, including The Newport Folk Festival, Coachella Festival, The Telluride Bluegrass Festival, The Cambridge Folk Festival, MerleFest, The Austin City Limits Festival, and Farm Aid.^{[8][75][86][87][88][89][90][91][92]} They have toured North America extensively, and have played in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.^{[8][20][75][93]} Concert reviews have praised the chemistry between Welch and Rawlings on stage.^[7][93][94] Tizzy Asher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote "there was a startling unspoken intimacy between them. They anticipated each other's movements and shifted when necessary to fit each other."^[94]

The Dave Rawlings Machine have toured North America, with the band composed of Rawlings, Welch and three members of Old Crow Medicine Show.^[95] Welch and Rawlings also participate in group tours with notable musicians. In 2004, they were part of the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue, a three-week US tour with Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller and Emmylou Harris.^[96] In 2009, The Dave Rawlings Machine joined Old Crow Medicine Show, The Felice Brothers and Justin Townes Earle for The Big Surprise Tour, a US tour described as a "roots-music extravaganza".^[97] In 2011, Welch was a support act for the recently reformed Buffalo Springfield.^[98]

Discography[link]

• 1996 – Revival
• 1998 – Hell Among the Yearlings
• 2001 – Time (The Revelator)
• 2003 – Soul Journey
• 2011 – The Harrow & The Harvest

Footnotes[link]

1. ^ Pronounced with a hard /ɡ/

References[link]