Soul Journey

Rawlings produced again, and the record used a larger band than its predecessors. Greg Leisz played Dobro, Ketch Secor fiddle, Jim Boquist bass, Mark Ambrose acoustic guitar and Matt Andrews bass on Lowlands, with Welch and Rawlings covering everything else. Welch said she wanted to make a happier record. Three of its songs are their own versions of traditional folk songs, a first for the duo. She described the album as more spontaneous than some earlier work, and said that not everything should sound the same, because a record should reflect change and growth.

It reached 107 on the Billboard 200 and 3 on the Independent Albums chart. John Harris of Mojo called it pretty much perfect and Will Hermes of Entertainment Weekly wrote that she had never sounded deeper, realer or sexier. Pitchfork's William Bowers wrote his 2003 review as a script of two characters talking, and one of them concludes that the album remains a tad raptureless. A vinyl reissue followed in 2018.