Soul Journey is the fourth studio album by Gillian Welch. As with all of her previous releases, it is a collaboration with David Rawlings. In their preceding work, Time (The Revelator), Welch and Rawlings had experimented with using only acoustic guitar and banjo as accompaniment. With Soul Journey, they return to the more diverse and modern instrumentation of their early work, employing electric guitar, organ, and drums. As with Welch's other works, a strong American roots influence can be heard. This is perhaps most clear on the track, "No One Knows My Name", which borrows the melody from the Carter Family classic, "Motherless Children" and in Welch's reading of the traditional, "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor".