Woodland is the name of Gillian Welch and David Rawling’s studio in Nashville, and it’s also the name of their new album. On Woodland, the duo continue to show their deep connection as collaborators. The album has a wide open sound that features their seemlessly blended and intimately recorded vocals, and the light touch of a backing band that includes drums, bass, pedal steel, banjo, and airy strings on tunes like "What We Had" and "Hashtag". "Lawman" and "The Bells and the Birds" have a lovely somberness, and the album as a whole has a "live off the floor" feeling to it that we hear less and less of these days. Woodland will stay in our "recently played" column for the forseeable future.
We interviewed Gillian and Dave back in 2001 for Tape Op #85.
Tape Op is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the art of record making.
If you are a Tape Op reader, you know our recent issue #136 had a focus on Dub Reggae. But beyond King Tubby, Lee Perry and Scientist, many people wonder where they should start with their listening to explore the genre. I asked recent interviewee...
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We're thinking of printing some bumper stickers to help promote the Tape Op brand name. Our ideas have included:
"My Other Car is a Tape Op"
"My Child is an Honor Student at Tape Op"
"Honk if You're Tape Op"
"I'd rather be reading Tape...
I received several CDs recently, notably the Monsters of Folk (Jim James, M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis) and Porcupine Tree's The Incident, that I really wanted to listen to but was unable to hear. Why? Because these promo discs were...
"I sent a package to you several months ago containing some music I asked you to evaluate for me. I respect your background and was hoping that you personally might allow for cutting out a spare hour to do me this favor. Since I never heard from you...
Since putting a pair of these modules in the rack it is has been a struggle to choose whether or not they go on the vocal or the mix. The vocal ususally wins, but it's a tough call. It doesn't take much to give your lead or bgv's that special...
Eric Liljestrand remembers his friend and working partner Hal Willner
Hal and I spent countless hours, days, weeks, months in dark rooms all over creating some of the most original albums and film scores the world will ever hear. A solid third of...