Emmylou Harris, Iris DeMent, Carlene Carter: Few can render an orphan's lament or a simple story of love gone wrong with such spine-tingling results. Emerging from that point where the sky meets the road, Revival is so powerful and moving, so simple and full of grace, you become convinced you're in a remote prairie cabin, pensively pacing over wooden floors, so much so that you can feel the wind in the window cracks and the thunderheads rolling overhead. Gillian Welch is an artist with these powers, and with sturdy acoustic guitars, standup bass, old-fashioned harmony-singing and Welch's high, clear voice Revival is a triumph of traditional American roots music that will stand the ages, as timeless in its own way as Emmylou Harris' seminal work, or even as the warm resonant singing of the Carter Family. Producer T-Bone Burnett wisely keeps the production sparse, flourishing the instruments with a warm, woody sound (even with the occasional electric guitar, you can almost feel the wood of the speaker cabinet resonating), and puts Welch's resonant voice out front. And when she sings her songs about "Barroom Girls" and bluebirds flying above the clouds, or renders a simple lyric like "I am an orphan girl" with a practiced, poignant downward lilt in her voice, Welch is positively chilling.

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