Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch Where: The Music Box, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood When: 8 p.m. Thursday Price: $30 (plus $11.75 in fees) Info: (323) 464-0808; hello@themusicbox.la

Sara Gazarek, "Blossom & Bee" (Palmetto) Though perhaps not as well known among the latest generation of jazz vocalists that includes Gretchen Parlato, Jane Monheit and, to an extent, Esperanza Spalding, Sara Gazarek proves herself every bit as worthy of attention with a sweet and affectionately delicate new album "Blossom & Bee. " A graduate of USC's Thornton School of Music, Gazarek has shown broad tastes in her song...

It's strange the way sad songs often make us feel so good. In Gillian Welch's sensitive tales of hard times and troubled souls, there's a measure of grace and compassion that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. While the pop world has been cheering the arrival of a host of great new female artists in rock and soul, there is also a remarkably talented group of '90s women in a folk and country vein, including Alison Krauss and Iris DeMent.

SERIES Paula's Best Dishes: In this new cooking show, Southern chef Paula Deen rescues viewer recipes and shares kitchen traditions (10:30 a.m. Food). Austin City Limits: The Decemberists highlight songs from "The King Is Dead" and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings perform tracks from "The Harrow & the Harvest" in this new episode (11 p.m. KOCE). A second episode follows at midnight featuring Widespread Panic. MOVIES An American in Paris: Songs by George and Ira Gershwin underscore this 1951 tale of an artist caught between two women in postwar Paris.

The volume seemed to be turning up: Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings were moving away from acoustic austerity, growing comfortable rocking out. Their last album, "Soul Journey," saw these Nashville alt-folkies jolting their sound with electricity and a backbeat. Rawlings has stepped out as a producer — indie rockers Bright Eyes, the shambling Old Crow Medicine Show — and the duo guested on the Decemberists' breakout, "The King Is Dead. " Could this mid-career acoustic duo — in its first release in eight years — be ready for a similar lunge into the mainstream?

Gillian Welch is a singer-songwriter with a history of strong critical support and a loyal fan base, and she just got a huge career boost from being featured on the unlikely hit soundtrack of old-timey country music from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" So as a free agent without a record deal, she was in a position to name the label she wanted to be on. She named it Acony Records.

Gillian Welch didn't set out to establish herself as a music-industry maverick. The Manhattan-born, Los Angeles-reared singer-songwriter simply wanted to find a way to make music the way she wanted people to hear it. But ever since she and longtime musical partner David Rawlings set up their own record label for their 2001 album "Time (The Revelator)," they've become quasi-heroes in the world of independently produced pop music.

Gillian Welch is no screamer, yelper or blues shouter. Her voice is wistful and weary, singing of spiritual quests and first loves, lonesome thoughts and leaving home. So there was a quiet ease to her performance Wednesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, but also a strong will that emerged from the emotional content of her songs.

Gillian Welch is clearly a young woman who adapts easily to strange, unfamiliar surroundings. Having been stuck in traffic all day en route to a gig at Manhattan's Irving Plaza, the singer is more than happy to plunk herself down on an old sofa in the club's ladies' lounge--the only room in the venue that's relatively free of noise and chaos--and chat for a few minutes.

MUSIC On "The Hazards of Love," the 2009 album from the Decemberists, frontman Colin Meloy and his merry band of Pacific Northwest hucksters created a medieval rock opera. The band's latest album, "The King Is Dead," takes the opposite tack, exploring Americana, a much more simple, rustic format. The right players are on the record with Meloy — R.E.M.'s Peter Buck contributes guitar and mandolin, and Gillian Welch provides vocals that go a long way in establishing some measure of restraint here.

The volume seemed to be turning up: Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings were moving away from acoustic austerity, growing comfortable rocking out. Their last album, "Soul Journey," saw these Nashville alt-folkies jolting their sound with electricity and a backbeat. Rawlings has stepped out as a producer — indie rockers Bright Eyes, the shambling Old Crow Medicine Show — and the duo guested on the Decemberists' breakout, "The King Is Dead. " Could this mid-career acoustic duo — in its first release in eight years — be ready for a similar lunge into the mainstream?

Gillian Welch Where: The Music Box, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood When: 8 p.m. Thursday Price: $30 (plus $11.75 in fees) Info: (323) 464-0808; hello@themusicbox.la

MUSIC On "The Hazards of Love," the 2009 album from the Decemberists, frontman Colin Meloy and his merry band of Pacific Northwest hucksters created a medieval rock opera. The band's latest album, "The King Is Dead," takes the opposite tack, exploring Americana, a much more simple, rustic format. The right players are on the record with Meloy — R.E.M.'s Peter Buck contributes guitar and mandolin, and Gillian Welch provides vocals that go a long way in establishing some measure of restraint here.

Gillian Welch didn't set out to establish herself as a music-industry maverick. The Manhattan-born, Los Angeles-reared singer-songwriter simply wanted to find a way to make music the way she wanted people to hear it. But ever since she and longtime musical partner David Rawlings set up their own record label for their 2001 album "Time (The Revelator)," they've become quasi-heroes in the world of independently produced pop music.

Gillian Welch is no screamer, yelper or blues shouter. Her voice is wistful and weary, singing of spiritual quests and first loves, lonesome thoughts and leaving home. So there was a quiet ease to her performance Wednesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, but also a strong will that emerged from the emotional content of her songs.

* * * GILLIAN WELCH "Time (The Revelator)" Acony The first sounds on Welch's haunting third album are jarring adjacent notes strummed on acoustic guitar. They set the tone for everything that follows--unsettling, disjointed thoughts and emotions that reinforce and extend the compositional skills she and partner David Rawlings laid out on her previous two efforts.

* * * GILLIAN WELCH "Time (The Revelator)" Acony The first sounds on Welch's haunting third album are jarring adjacent notes strummed on acoustic guitar. They set the tone for everything that follows--unsettling, disjointed thoughts and emotions that reinforce and extend the compositional skills she and partner David Rawlings laid out on her previous two efforts.

Tonight's concert featuring singer-songwriter Gillian Welch at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara is worth the trip. Welch has been described as everything from neo-traditional country to American primitive, bluegrass to folk. Her debut album, "Revival," was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1997. Welch's music has reached a wide audience through appearances on Nashville's Grand Old Opry and PBS television's "Austin City Limits."

Gillian Welch is a singer-songwriter with a history of strong critical support and a loyal fan base, and she just got a huge career boost from being featured on the unlikely hit soundtrack of old-timey country music from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" So as a free agent without a record deal, she was in a position to name the label she wanted to be on. She named it Acony Records.

Every Ulysses needs a little traveling music, and in the case of George Clooney's Everett Ulysses McGill, the 1930s incarnation of Western civilization's archetypal wanderer, it's the old folk lament "Man of Constant Sorrow." That tune is the recurring centerpiece in a feast of traditional music that enriches "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," Joel and Ethan Coen's loose, comedic adaptation of "The Odyssey" set in Depression-era Mississippi. The movie opens Dec.