How's About You?

I've been listening to an album, Friend of a Friend, by David Rawlings, long-time collaborator of Gillian Welch (and Ryan Adams), this time in the guise of the Dave Rawlings Machine. Gillian features throughout, as writer and performer, but David is in the foreground. It's a little too patchy to be a great album - you get the impression that without the ferociously driven Gillian in the driver's seat, Rawlings is quite happy to idle (and he's such a damn fine guitarist that it's a pleasure to hear him even when he's not trying). The high point is an extraordinary 'medley' in which Conor Oberst's Method Acting merges into Neil Young's Cortez the Killer (a song in which, by contrast with Oberst's, it's best not to listen to the words). But there's one song that perfectly illustrates the Welch-Rawlings ability to write new songs that sound as if they've been around for ever - it's How's About You?, which anyone would confidently date to 1930 or thereabouts, but is fresh minted by Gillian and David. Enjoy it here - and be warned, it's damnably catchy...