Acclaimed folk musicians Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings have announced their new album, Woodland, which is due August 23 via their own Acony Records. Accompanying the album news is new single "Empty Trainload of Sky". Listen below:

While both artists have collaborated on many of each other's albums over the years - such as Welch's classic 2001 LP, Time (The Revelator) - this is only the second time they've been credited together on an official album, following 2020's All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone), a covers collection. This is Welch's first album of new original material since 2011's Grammy-nominated The Harrow & the Harvest. Since then, in addition to their covers album, the pair were also nominated for an Oscar for their song "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings" from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and released a comprehensive multi-volume archival compilation series titled Boots.

According to a press statement: "Woodland is at the heart of everything we do, and has been for the last 20 some years. 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.”

In addition to the album announcement, the duo have shared the dates of a US tour, beginning in Kentucky in September. Find those dates, as well as the record's cover and tracklisting, below.

Buy Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings Tickets here

Woodland

Empty Trainload of Sky
What We Had
Lawman
The Bells and the Birds
North Country
Hashtag
The Day the Mississippi Died
Turf the Gambler
Here Stands a Woman
Howdy Howdy


GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS TOUR DATES

July 23 – South Burlington, VT at Higher Ground SOLD OUT [Find Tickets]
July 24 – Northampton, MA at Iron Horse Music Hall SOLD OUT [Find Tickets]
July 25 – Northampton, MA at Iron Horse Music Hall SOLD OUT [Find Tickets]
July 27 – Newport, RI at Newport Folk Festival SOLD OUT [Find Tickets]
Sept 04 – Bowling Green, KY at SKyPAC
Sept 05 – Bloomington, IN at The Bluebird
Sept 06 – Evanston, IL at Cahn Auditorium
Sept 08 – Madison, WI at The Orpheum Theater
Sept 09 – St Paul, MN at The Fitzgerald Theater
Sept 10 – St Paul, MN at The Fitzgerald Theater
Sept 12 – Des Moines, IA at Hoyt Sherman Place
Sept 14 – La Vista, NE at The Astro
Sept 15 – Kansas City, MO at Folly Theater
Sept 16 – St Louis, MO at The Sheldon
Oct 13 – Birmingham, AL at The Lyric Theatre
Oct 14 – Atlanta, GA at Atlanta Symphony Hall
Oct 15 – Charlotte, NC at Knight Theater
Oct 17 – Boone, NC at The Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
Oct 18 – Knoxville, TN at Bijou Theatre
Oct 19 – Asheville, NC at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
Oct 21 – Charleston, SC at Charleston Music Hall
Oct 23 – Saxapahaw, NC at Haw River Ballroom
Oct 24 – Saxapahaw, NC at Haw River Ballroom
Nov 20 – Louisville, KY at The Brown Theatre
Nov 21 – Cincinnati, OH at Taft Theatre
Nov 22 – Detroit, MI at The Masonic Temple
Nov 23 – Akron, OH at Goodyear Theater
Nov 25 – Pittsburgh, PA at Byham Theater
Nov 26 – Ithaca, NY at State Theatre of Ithaca
Nov 27 – Troy, NY at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
Nov 30 – Kingston, NY at Ulster Performing Arts Center
Dec 1 – Boston, MA at The Wilbur
Dec 3 – Portland, ME at State Theatre
Dec 5 – Port Chester, NY at The Capitol Theatre