Song of the Day 3/18: Gillian Welch, “Winter’s Come and Gone”

Yeah, it’s a few more days until it’s official, but it’s starting to feel like winter’s come and gone.

This sounds like it came from the depths of the Depression — I can imagine the Joads singing it on the way to California — but it’s just more evidence that Welch and her partner, David Rawlings, have old-time music in their bones.

This song closed their 1998 LP, “Hell Among the Yearlings.” I think it’s a small masterpiece, built around the image of a lonely, poor, troubled woman talking to the birds — and illustrating that maybe hope really is the thing with feathers.

I don’t know why it hasn’t been covered more — bluegrass duos seem to be the only artists who’ve discovered it, I suppose because they’re the only ones who listen to a throwback like Gillian Welch — but it deserves wider circulation. This “Live From Here” show-closing performance by Chris Thile and his guests a few years ago might be the most exposure it’s gotten.