Gillian Welch and David Rawlings - Orphan Girl (live) 

No other version of this song matches this one. Including renditions by Gillian and David. The harmonies and David's guitar interludes are so perfect.

I too am an orphan girl. This song gives me a feeling of peace.

FIRST TIME I HEARD THIS, I BROKE DOWN. IT WAS MY TRUE CIRCUMSTANCES.

My Ophthalmologist, of all people, asked me who my favorite guitar player was and I told him Gillian Welch's partner. David Rawlings is real good. Thanks Gillian, I love you too.

Great photos

Gillian and David have such a respect for country music's roots, traditional formats and yet the music still sounds fresh and vibrant. I love musicians who follow there own paths, play & sing what they want to...

Never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

God man, I love Gillian Welch.

One of my favorite songs. Gillian Welch does a beautiful job & Rawlings is a fantastic guitarist.

Beautiful! love from a streetkid

beautiful...brings tears to my eyes...I feel like an orphan in my family, from which i am alienated.

I CAN'T HELP BUT SMILE WHEN I SEE GILLIAN SMILE. ONE COMMENT I READ SAID THAT WHEN GILLIAN SMILED THE WORLD WAS OKAY

Someone said this is "alternative country". This is real country.

And Gillian is in fact an orphan girl, according to her Wikipedia page. And she and Dave are keeping real music alive today, I might add as a personal opinion.

Gillian Welch is in fact strong chemistry between two extraordinary and creative musicians. Not just in country but in any music style there are basically two possible approaches. Creativity recognizes only one of them, and originality is the only outcome of creativity. Creative musicians (and not only musicians) do not follow, they bring something new to the music.

Oops! The fact that she was raised in LA & connects to this music makes me think she truly finds her roots in the sounds of Appalachia. It is also my opinion that some of the best music is made when two genres/cultures collide . Either way, I'm glad you appreciate & stick up for Appalachian, hillbilly culture & music!

Great song, great rendering, superb country!

Absolutely love this , it does my heart such good 😻

As a single man wanting to adopt through the foster system, this song encourages me to persist in my efforts. I know a man who got to adopt his 2 foster girls and they have been welcomed with open arms by friends and extended family of the dad. I hope for my own success story. Add this song to Gillian's "By The Marks" as my favorite songs.

One of the most stirring gospel songs ever written, and what a beautiful version. Thanks for posting this one.

Gillian Welch is one of my favourite alternative country singer song writers, I thought you might enjoy hearing some alt country!

I was privileged to see Gillian and David open for The Buffalo Springfield at the Santa Barbara Bowl in 2011.

speachless......gotta love these two.

That guitar solo is something else.

This is beautiful.

This sure beats the crap country songs out there about pickup trucks, tight jean girls, sweet tea, roadhouses and jingoism.

This song has been in my heart forever.Thanks Gillian.

Totally, and his harmony singing is wicked good as well.

Wow truly a beautiful song... well sung...gets down to what music and life is about!! Cheers

Such a sad song for me, but oh so nice to listen to...

Lovely couple with music from heaven.

The best American music is from these two married folks and the married duo of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist of Over The Rhine. Sarah Jarosz is a young prodigy from Texas; if she meets and marries a musician, some unexpected and unsuspected might arise...

I agree. Country is truly where I learned to sing and play guitar I love it.

saw Gillian and Dave at Brighton , the best show I have seen in years , sadly they did not sing this , but I could not complain , if there a better picker than Dave Rawlings I have never heard him

I love this so much

Two of the most talented people on the planet.

Bless our orphan souls...

So nice ... so just .. so nice. thank you GW and DR. Awesome.

This is the 2nd best version of this great song. They did an even better version in this time frame (~1996) on a PBS show. Main difference was that Rawlings' guitar excursions were exquisitely good, even better than here. I taped it off the TV.

Nobody's fighting except westchesterny, who seems to think this music exists for them to judge meaningless crap like "authenticity", thus making it all about them. More than being "authentic" in the geographical or cultural sense, Gillian is directly connected to the real human things that this music connects to and which have always given it value.

So beautiful!

Best duo out there

Fabulous version. You can smell the sawdust.

LOve Gillian!

Beautiful..........

Great song,incredibly well done. A version of this and also extraordinary is sung by Mumford and Sons with Emmylou Harris.

Thanx for the quality sound on this upload. This is one of her greats. Probably in the top 50 or so of the greatest songs she's written. I swear, she's the best songwriter this side of Richard Thompson.

I am an Orphan Girl too

this song means so much to me because my family is shit... i only love my brother.. and maybe when i die will i meet my real family that loves me.. i have a daughter that i give the world to, btw

pure gold !

Love the studio music to your images.

Walk Beside Us All.

classic track of times gone by.

love this

Her pronouncation reminds me of Dolores O'Riordan and it feels so well. What a song, what a performance.

Wonderful.

I am an orphan on God's highway But I'll share my troubles if you go my way I have no mother no father No sister no brother I am an orphan girl I have had friendships pure and golden But the ties of kinship I have not known them I know no mother no father No sister no brother I am an orphan girl But when He calls me I will be able To meet my family at God's table I'll meet my mother my father My sister my brother No more orphan girl Blessed Savior make me willing And walk beside me until I'm with them Be my mother my father My sister my brother I am an orphan girl Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Gillian Howard Welch Orphan Girl lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management

My mantra. 💔

So pretty!

I think most people might call this "old time". But whatever noun you wish to give it. :)

If Ms Welch is not herself an orphan, a song like this is an eye opener to the concept of channeling from other Souls? Or perhaps, her ability to perceive at such a depth that modern common sense cannot explain. But then again, common sense is anything but common. Anyway, I'm running on here...

Sweet!

You probably are God's favourite child and blessed.

Res ipso loquitor: the thing speaks for itself. In this case the music represents itself regardless of interpretation or caviling about "authenticity". The "whole point of her music" is that you should enjoy it, and if you can't, then don't listen.

@happytime64 if you liked this vid that much than i think you would enjoy Crooked Still's version as well this is the best performance that i found. Crooked Still's masterful arrangment of Gillian Welch's

@wanderer686 Very good description. On this version, Rawlins plays like Willie Nelson has always dreamed of playing. And of course, he "gets" Gillians' songs perfectly.

yeah,but Gillian wrote this. It's hers. So her! love her!

♥️❣️🎶🎶🎶🎵🎶

Indiscernable to me from the studio version.

Jesus said "who are my mother and brothers?...those who do the will of God" therefore every Christian is an orphan in this world, we have a new family from the moment of salvation.

It's funny how this audience fights and scrabbles about nothing of substance, while Gillian sings and David plays. Gillian and David are oblivious to the meaningless fray at their feet. And they sound good to my ear. That is all that matters. What is needed is a higher class of listener.

Hey Gillian, are you related to Joni Welch? Or, Amiee Rawlings?

WestChesterny, you of course know the Appalachian Mountains extend to New York. She may not reflect the good ole Appalachian hillbilly culture I grew up with but I believe it's in her blood, her heart and her soul. Her talent is undeniable and if being a manufactured, no substance, hack was her goal she would've chose pop music.Choosing this music while being raised in LA

Gillian Welch describes herself as folk.

Ralph Stanley, Norman Blake, John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Emmylou and the rest would slap you down for saying that.

how about the loving parents that adopted ..are they not mother father?

This is great, not sure I like the Crooked Still version, although the banjo player is excellent, it's too clever.

In answer to John Capone. You are 100% correct.What they are passing off today is a mish mash of junk. The people you mentioned are country and Lucinda Williams in top notch. You may also want to consider Miranda Lambert and ...of course Willie Nelson. Another ,and yes he is touring, is the great Merle Haggard.

I am often guilty of fascist traditionalism -- to a degree. While I can't listen to, say, John Hammond Jr. and other copyists of early blues. and early country music, Gillian somehow has channeled the past in her singing and songwriting.

What's the point of this song? When you're dead you'll be happy? People need to step up and support former (adult) foster youth and adoption fails and not look away, leave them to be off and on homeless and then hate them for collecting welfare. You don't leave it to prayer, or to god. You be gratefulfor the privilege of resources and family and share it fairly. This song really says orphans you're better off dead. But good she raised it to consciousness in song. People always talk about responsibility not having any sense of it for others themselves. Your life is not just for you.

She seemed so awkward and out of her elements at the Grammys on stage, better get used to it

NOT REALLY--- She's from NYC and otherwise raised in LA. If you are really from the South and Appalachia, you HEAR what a poseur she is. It's a real shame. She's "marketed" as if she speaks for people who don't really believe in ideas such as this. It's soul-less. It's a good mimic of the voice and sound---but she is not really from it, and she destroys the real culture completely (which is the whole point of her music, really)