The phenomenal singer-songwriter Gillian Welch trades the spotlight with her longtime musical partner Dave Rawlings for an album of easygoing and deceptively intricate folk. Joined by members of Punch Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show, Rawlings and Welch play with loose professionalism as they roll through a languid, darkly-tinged American landscape. The arrangements are more embellished than on Welch's generally ultra-minimal work, but the record feels open and calm, led by Rawlings' airy tenor. Favorites: 1, 3, 7.

1. *(5:29)—Slow, upbeat, open-hearted. Absolutely beautiful choruses.
2. (6:44)—Slow, gothic (as in Flannery O'Connor, not The Cure). Wonderfully dark beginning, gets pepped up by dramatic strings.
3. *(10:56)—Slow. A quiet, pretty epic in the vein of Gillian Welch's “I Dream a Highway” (one of my favorite songs ever). Unwinds and unwinds...
4. (5:56)—Slow. Foreboding, pretty, minimal, lovely.
5. (3:38)—Mid-tempo, laid-back rockabilly.
6. (4:10)—Mid-tempo, sunny, written in the tradition of ultra-repetitive nonsense folk songs.
7. *(7:58)—Medium-slow, rambling. Wonderful harmonies all the way through.