#430 The Best Album of 2001, Round 1 Match #9: Gillian Welch vs. Ash
Hey folks!
Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:
#8 Gillian Welch, TIME (THE REVELATOR)
vs.
#121 Ash, FREE ALL ANGELS
To vote, follow this link to the Google Form. You will need a Google login to vote. If you can’t or won’t have one, let me know ASAP (either through this newsletter, my email [kentmbeeson@hey.com] or on the Best Album Brackets Bluesky account) and I’ll see what I can do.
We have one Designated Cheerleader today, it’s for TIME (THE REVELATOR), and it’s from @aarcraft.bsky.social. Take it away!
You can get lost in Time (The Revelator). The tight harmonies of Gillian Welch and her long time partner David Rawlings have a haunting quality even when they aren't singing of Ruination Day, the fateful day when the Iceberg hit, the Okies fled, the Great Emancipator took a bullet in the back of the head and a punk band played a two dollar show where they won't even make enough for a half tank of gas. Death hovers over this album -Ruination Day, thinking about Elvis and John Henry on the day they died, getting a Red Clay Halo in the afterlife. In perhaps the best song on the album (although it's a tough competition), the death might be of her industry because "Everything is Free" now. But she is going to do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay. Time (The Revelator) always moves on. They clean up after the two dollar show and she knows she wants to sing in a rock n roll band despite it all.
The nearly 15 minute closer "I Dream a Highway” brings this all to a head. There doesn't seem to be a way out - it's wheels inside of wheels and a call within a call - but she dreams a highway back to you over and over until you're free. I return to this song a lot - despite its length because it's a song (and album) I love getting lost in.
Thank you, @aarcraft.bsky.social!
Click here to see the current results for the entire tournament, and click here to see the current results for the prediction bracket contest.
Yesterday, #48 Ben Folds, ROCKIN' THE SUBURBS defeated #81 The Langley Schools Music Project, INNOCENCE AND DESPAIR, 117-100-3.
Thanks,
Kent
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