Gillian Welch to release ‘The Harrow & The Harvest’ on reel-to-reel tape via Acony Records

Posted on by Dave Denyer

Gillian Welch’s 2011 album, the Grammy-nominated The Harrow & The Harvest, described by the Washington Post as “Welch…at her haunting, heart-aching best,” will be released for the first time ever on reel-to-reel tape via her own Acony Records.

Welch’s long-time collaborator David Rawlings says about the release, “as someone who spends a lot of time listening to analog tape, I’ve been a big fan of the reel-to-reel culture that has slowly grown over the past decade. So, given a window of time waiting for the construction of a new top-notch pressing plant (that’s another story), technician Brent Bishop and I decided to develop our dream duplication system for making peerless reel-to-reel tapes. Gillian and I are particularly proud that this release of The Harrow & The Harvest is, from the writing, recording and final reel-to-reel, completely homegrown.”

David Rawlings & Gillian Welch (photo credit: Henry Diltz)

Housed in a deluxe slipcase and custom tape boxes beautifully made by Stoughton Printing and featuring the original artwork by John Dyer Baizley, each reel-to-reel set is personally produced by David Rawlings at Woodland Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and hand leadered on two ¼” archival quality SM911 tapes. The set also includes a complete song lyric sheet as well as an exclusive photo print by Mark Seliger, hand printed by the artist himself and autographed by Mark Seliger, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

The 1/4″ two track 15ips one-to-one duplicates are produced in real time from an original 30ips 1/2″ master tape on meticulously calibrated ATR 102 tape machines through a custom distribution system providing proper impedance matching and the most direct path for the highest possible fidelity.

Here’s a preview:

This special limited release of The Harrow & The Harvest is available to pre-order at https://store.aconyrecords.com/products/the-harrow-the-harvest-reel-to-reel?variant=40182622388311 and will ship by mid-November.

Showcasing this remarkable album in a way we’ve never experienced it before, this ultimate package promises to bring outstanding sonic fidelity and clarity to The Harrow & The Harvest, heralded as Welch’s greatest work.

For more information you can contact Mary Moyer mary@qprime.com or Emilio Herce emilio@qprime.com at Q Prime Management. Otherwise head direct to the link above to pre-order!