Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have officially unveiled Woodland, the duo’s long-awaited 10th studio album set to release via their Acony Records imprint on August 23. Taking its name from Welch and Rawlings’ Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, Tenn., the artists’ imminent project is both their first full-length release since 2020’s Grammy-winning covers collection All the Good Times and first new material since 2017’s Poor David’s Almanac. To preview the collection, the artists have shared “Empty Trainload of Sky,” a soul-stirring, clear-eyed folk-rock ballad emblematic of their storytelling chops and studio finesse.

“Woodland is at the heart of everything we do, and has been for the last twenty-some years,” the creative partners offer in a release. “The past four years were spent almost entirely within its walls, bringing it back to life after the 2020 tornado and making this record. The music is (songs are) a swirl of contradictions, emptiness, fullness, joy, grief, destruction, permanence. Now.”

“Empty Trainload of Sky,” which opens the 10-track collection, manifests these central themes with a wide-open plain of emotional nuance, swaying with the breeze between bleak resolve and spirits ablaze. Welch’s dynamic vocals and Rawlings’ full, direct acoustic strum share the front, stepping evenly over a topsoil of brushed snares and against the distant hum of pedal steel. Hear the duo in fine form and close harmony here. 

To support their forthcoming project, Welch and Rawlings have plotted a rare US tour for this autumn. After three sold-out Northeast shows in advance of their July 27 headline performance at Newport Folk Festival, the duo will hit the road again at the summer’s end with a Sept. 4 kickoff from Bowling Green, Ky.’s SKyPAC. From there, the pair will make 28 more stops Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions–including appearances at Atlanta’s Atlanta Symphony Hall, Detroit’s Masonic Temple, Portland, Maine’s State Theatre and two nights at Saxapahaw, N.C.’s Haw River Ballroom–before a finale at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. on Dec. 5.

Welch and Rawlings began their recorded collaboration in 1996 with Welch’s debut Revival, which featured guitar, bass and vocals from Rawlings and earned a nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 1997 Grammy Awards. The duo have remained figureheads of the folk revival movement since, continuously challenging the genre’s norms with a style that balances historical reverence and distinctive juxtapositions.

Woodland is available to pre-order and pre-save now. For tickets and more information on Wlch and Rawlings’ new tour, visit gillianwelch-davidrawlings.com/tour.

Listen to “Empty Trainload of Sky” below, and read on for the complete list of tour dates.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – Woodland

1. Empty Trainload Of Sky
2. What We Had
3. Lawman
4. The Bells And The Birds
5. North Country
6. Hashtag
7. The Day The Mississippi Died
8. Turf The Gambler
9. Here Stands A Woman
10. Howdy Howdy

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings 2024 Tour Dates:
July 23 – Higher Ground – South Burlington, VT
July 24 – Iron Horse Music Hall – Northampton, Mass.
July 25 – Iron Horse Music Hall – Northampton, Mass.
July 27 – Newport Folk Festival – Newport, R.I.
Sept 04 – SKyPAC – Bowling Green, Ky.
Sept 05 – The Bluebird – Bloomington, Ind. 
Sept 06 – Cahn Auditorium – Evanston, Ill.
Sept 08 – The Orpheum Theater  – Madison, Wis.
Sept 09 – The Fitzgerald Theater – St Paul, Minn.
Sept 10 – The Fitzgerald Theater – St Paul, Minn. 
Sept 12 – Hoyt Sherman Place – Des Moines, Iowa
Sept 14 – The Astro – La Vista, Neb.
Sept 15 – Folly Theater – Kansas City, Mo.
Sept 16 – The Sheldon – St Louis
Oct 13 – The Lyric Theatre – Birmingham, Ala.
Oct 14 – Atlanta Symphony Hall – Atlanta
Oct 15 – Knight Theater – Charlotte, N.C.
Oct 17 – The Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts – Boone, N.C.
Oct 18 – Bijou Theatre – Knoxville, Tenn.
Oct 19 – Thomas Wolfe Auditorium – Asheville, N.C.
Oct 21 – Charleston Music Hall – Charleston, S.C.
Oct 23 – Haw River Ballroom – Saxapahaw, N.C.
Oct 24 – Haw River Ballroom – Saxapahaw, N.C.
Nov 20 – The Brown Theatre – Louisville, Ky.
Nov 21 – Taft Theatre – Cincinnati
Nov 22 – The Masonic Temple – Detroit, Mich.
Nov 23 – Goodyear Theater – Akron, Ohio 
Nov 25 – Byham Theater – Pittsburgh, Pa.
Nov 26 – State Theatre of Ithaca – Ithaca, N.Y.
Nov 27 – Troy Savings Bank Music Hall – Troy, N.Y.
Nov 30 – Ulster Performing Arts Center – Kingston, N.Y.
Dec 1 – The Wilbur – Boston
Dec 3 – State Theatre – Portland, Maine
Dec 5 – The Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, N.Y.