Time (The Revelator)

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings made Time (The Revelator) in the same room over several nights with two guitars, two voices, and no other musicians. The title track is the most patient song on the record — almost seven minutes of two guitars turning over the same few chords while Welch sings a series of verses that feel like notes toward a longer thesis about the American 20th century.

The song is not in a hurry. It is the sound of sitting on the porch with coffee and watching the light change across the yard while something unresolved slowly resolves inside you. The year has turned, and Welch is the voice that tells you that.