If you go
› What: Gillian Welch, with Dave Rawlings, in concert.› When: 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30.› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› Admission: $29 and $35.› Phone: 423-757-5580.› Websites: www.tivolichattanooga.com.
Believe it or not, it’s been 16 years since the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and its accompanying multimillion-selling soundtrack made traditional music cool for the mainstream. Suddenly, it seemed, everybody was into Ralph Stanley, Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski, the voice behind “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow.”
It also brought more attention to Gillian Welch, who co-produced the record with T Bone Burnett and who joined Krauss and Emmylou Harris on “Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby” and Krauss on “I’ll Fly Away.”
Like the others, Welch was already well known to fans of the genre at the time. In fact, her debut album, “Revival,” had been out four years. It was recently named to the No. 3 spot on Paste magazine’s 50 Best Alt-Country Albums of All Time.
Welch says the movie had a big impact on the form – and still does, though it might be less obvious.
“It brought acoustic music into more of the mainstream or pop culture,” she says. “I actually think now it’s been long enough ago that in a way ‘O Brother’ has been sort of assimilated or its effect has sort of been dispersed so that now what you see is the fruit of that. You see a broader range or larger group who have come up with an interest in acoustic and American roots and bluegrass.
“You don’t hear people talking about ‘O Brother’ specifically, but they are wildly interested and devoted to what I’ll so broadly call acoustic music.”
Welch, who lives in Nashville, returns to Chattanooga on Friday, Dec. 30, for a show at the Tivoli with longtime writing and performing partner Dave Rawlings.
“We are so excited to be coming back to the Tivoli,” she says. “We just discovered it a couple of years ago, and it was a happy discovery, finding a theater that we love so close to home.”
With the 20th anniversary of the release of “Revival” looming, last year she and Rawlings decided it was time to do what they’d been threatening for years. They spent months combing through all of the session recordings and put together a collection of outtakes and tracks that didn’t make the original cut.
The result is “Boots No. 1: The Official Revival Bootleg.” It contains 21 outtakes, alternate versions of songs and demos on two discs. Welch says she and Rawlings went into the studio with 30 to 35 songs 20 years ago, 10 of which made it onto the album.
“It was really interesting and a happy surprise that there was so much on tape,” she says. “There were quite a few songs that had never been released.
“It was interesting to hear what Dave and I had together and what we had figured out because we had zero miles on us when we went into the studio. We’d done a couple of demos, but we had virtually no recording experience.”
It helped that Burnett was producing.
Like a lot of artists, Welch was initially hesitant to release what was essentially not good enough to be released originally.
“But I think if you like someone enough and you’re a fan, you want to hear everything, and you go in knowing there will be mistakes or that it won’t be perfect. But you might get some glimpse into a song or the process.”
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.