Gillian Welch’s groundbreaking album Revival was released twenty years ago. To commemorate the anniversary, Welch’s own Acony Records will release Boots No 1: The Official Revival Bootleg on November 25th. Personally curated and produced by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, they worked alongside archivist Glen Chausse to mine selections from their extensive vault of analog tape recordings. The two-disc set will feature 8 previously unreleased songs, and include 21 outtakes, alternate versions, and demos from the making of the album such as the earliest home demo of “Orphan Girl,” which was recorded on a four track, and the rarity “Georgia Road,” a song that was only performed live once. The demo “Dry Town” was written the week after Welch and Rawlings opened for Johnny Cash . Gillian Welch is currently on tour as part of the Dave Rawlings Machine
Of the album, Gillian says, “I’m happy that the songs hold up. That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of. There is that interesting moment in any writer’s first batch of songs or any writer’s first novel or anything, a filmmaker’s first movie that always seems to have something that is different from what comes after. Something happens in that first push. Maybe because you’re usually up against more resistance. But there is a purity or a diamond hardness to the first batch that doesn’t seem to happen again. And so Revival has that when I look at it. Maybe it’s lack of ego. You know, there really was no me. You know, the artist Gillian Welch didn’t really exist. And then after that, I did.”
The Fat Angel Sings 