Hear Two Songs from Gillian Welch’s Next Collection of Unheard Recordings

Gillian Welch has shared two more songs from her upcoming collection of previously unheard material, Boots No 2: the Lost Songs, Vol. 2: “Beautiful Boy” and “I Just Want You to Know.”

“Beautiful Boy” is a sweet but devastating song in which Welch captures the anxiety and unease that often accompanies a newfound love — when all you can think about is the possibility of heartbreak on the other end. “I’m afraid of everything,” Welch sings, “everything that romance brings/the freely given gifts you can’t repay/sad goodbyes in darkened halls/and telephones most of all.”

“I Just Want You To Know” has a comparatively brighter air, a slow and steady blues laced with delicate slide guitar, with Welch crooning, “But you don’t know how I feel/and that my love for you is real/but when you cry you don’t cry alone/I just want you to know.”

Boots No 2: the Lost Songs, Vol. 2 will be released September 18th via Acony Records. It’s the second of three albums of previously unreleased songs that Welch and long-time collaborator David Rawlings recorded in between the making of 2001’s Time (The Revelator) and 2003’s Soul Journey. Boots No 2: Vol. 1 was released in July, while Vol. 3 is set to arrive in the coming months.