Memory loss

America may not remember history, but her enemies do | Gene Edward Veith

Gillian Welch, Americana singer and co-producer of the O, Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, has a sense of history. In her new album, Time (The Revelator), the assassination of President Lincoln, the sinking of the Titanic, the Great Depression, the rise of Elvis Presley, and music styles long forgotten are all mightily present in the songs she writes and performs.

"To me, in my mind, history is never dead," Ms. Welch told Luke Torn of The Wall Street Journal, "and John Henry is no different than Elvis, and is no more removed. And I do think that I was having to explain this to so many people, you know, like Dustbowl language, and other things that cropped up in my earlier records. It's not dead to me."