Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Hold Audience Rapt With Beautiful Folk Music at Akron Concert

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Akron Goodyear Theater Credit: Photo by Eric Heisig

Partway through Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ show Saturday night at Akron’s Goodyear Theater, audience members started yelling out song titles.

This went on for a little while, until someone loudly said “play whatever you want,” eliciting applause. And it appears the duo took that to heart, even if the show progressed as they originally planned it.

It had been too long since Welch and Rawlings set foot in Northeast Ohio (if setlist.fm can be believed, the last time the pair played in the area was at the Kent Stage in 2011), and the singer/songwriters made up for it by treating the capacity crowd to two hours of tunes spanning the myriad projects they collaborated on over the past three decades.

While their brand of folk and bluegrass-indebted music is deceptively restrained and mild-mannered, the show was engaging from the moment the pair launched into “Orphan Girl,” their voices and guitars (and occasional banjo) melding together as if part of a single organism.

The pair is touring behind this year’s “Woodland,” named after their Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, which they rebuilt following a tornado that tore off its roof in March 2020. The album was well-represented, from the lovely “Hashtag” to “The Day the Mississippi Died,” complete with a majestic arrangement and imagery-filled lyrics.

Both Welch and Rawlings had their chances at the mic. Accompanied for most of the show by bassist Paul Kowert, the sound filled the theater, no small feat for an all-acoustic set.

A lot of credit for that goes to Rawlings, whose raw flat-picking style elevates everything on which it’s featured. He constantly came up with new lines to weave through Welch’s open chords. Songs like “Cumberland Gap” and first set closer “Red Clay Halo” were a little grimier with his playing, in the best way.

That’s not to shortchange Welch, who took the lion’s share of leads. Songs like “Wrecking Ball” and “Revelator” demanded attention in the politest way, showing why her songs and performances consistently win her praise.

The show proceeded at a steady pace until the encore, which actually got a bit rowdy. After an obligatory singalong of “Look at Miss Ohio,” Welch and Rawlings launched into the gospel hymn “I’ll Fly Away.” As the song progressed, Rawlings let loose with yet another of his solos and Kowert returned to the stage. The crowd then got on its feet to clap and sing along.

The same thing happened in the second encore, as “I Hear Them All” segued into Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” complete with verses that are often cut. It was nice to see the duo let loose a little bit, showing another dimension to their playing.

Welch and Rawlings closed the show with “Everything Is Free,” again holding the audience rapt. I’m not sure if anyone shouted out that song earlier on, but regardless, the two musicians knew what the audience wanted.

Setlist (via setlist.fm and my own recollection):

Set 1:
1. Orphan Girl
2. Turf the Gambler
3. Empty Trainload of Sky
4. Howdy Howdy
5. Cumberland Gap
6. Wrecking Ball
7. Hashtag
8. Whiskey Girl
9. Ruby
10. Red Clay Halo

Set 2:
11. Lawman
12. What We Had
13. Hard Times
14. Lazarus
15. The Day the Mississippi Died
16. Midnight Train
17. The Way It Goes
18. Revelator

Encore 1:
19. Look at Miss Ohio
20. I’ll Fly Away

Encore 2:
21. I Hear Them All/This Land Is Your Land/I Hear Them All Reprise
22. Everything Is Free

Eric Heisig is a freelance writer in Cleveland. He can be reached at eheisig@gmail.com.

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