The Top Ten Americana Songs of All Time: 5th – Gillian Welch “Revelator” (2001)

Revelator appeared six times in our writers’ lists, so claims the No 5 slot (although equal on points with three other songs).

Dave Rawlings took over sole production duties for Time (Thee Revelator), the third album featuring Rawlings and Welch (although the albums were credited to Welch alone), and he stripped back the arrangements to virtually just guitar and banjo. This elegant, haunting song is a duo highlight. As Dave Jarman stated, “Welch and Rawlings are faithful inheritors of the acoustic American roots tradition, and sincerity, and truth to these roots, is a constant thread through their musical outputs over the years. The lyrics of Revelator don’t easily reveal their meaning, beyond the simple truth that time will reveal, but certainly the lyrics reference traditional American music brackets: They caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride, and the following line “The fortune lady came along she walked beside/but every word seemed to date her/time’s the revelator, the revelator”. Welch has stated that “There are a lot of words, but they shouldn’t be read, just heard“, she said. “The meaning has to do with the way they sound.” Certainly, the sound is amazing: Rawlings’ harmonies are exquisite, and his guitar is played like a third voice, filling the gaps between the words.

Martin Johnson thought that “Musically, the song is a classic work of the duo. Revelator is a meditation on time, and while Welch’s voice couldn’t be more different to Blind Willie Johnson’s, the interplay with Rawlings’ guitar brings an edge of dissonance to the recording that adds gravity while maintaining the inherent beauty of Welch’s voice. It may also be the best example of Rawlings’ guitar playing”. Johnson had released a version of Son House’s John the Revelator in 1930, but Welch stripped out the heavy religious overtones.

The album that this track comes from is one of the most acclaimed in the americana genre, with its heavy retro-folk influence, it is not at all surprising that a track from it should appear in this list. It was Grammy-nominated, although Welch and Rawlings went on to even greater success with the Grammy-winning All The Good Times (2020) and Woodland (2024). It is likely, though, that they have not surpassed the achievement of this song.