Woodland

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: More Evenings Beneath the Woodland Canopy

After a stacked and soul-filling 2025, Gillian Welch and her long-time musical right-hand man, David Rawlings, have taken a moment to rest, reset, and exhale.

Now the road calls again. This February and March, the revered American folk duo return to Australia for More Evenings With Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, a tour promising intimacy, invention, and the deepening glow of songs well travelled.

Fresh from a stellar, sold-out run earlier this year, including three unforgettable nights at the Sydney Opera House and five at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall, Welch and Rawlings are expanding the map. This time, they will begin in Queensland, winding their way down the East Coast, detouring through Adelaide, before closing beneath the regional Victorian skies of Korumburra and Geelong. 

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“The tour paused at the beginning of November, so those were the last shows and then we’re going to play a little bit here in Nashville but the tour really picks up again when we see ya’ll in February,” says Welch.

For Rawlings, this leg feels especially rich, not just geographically, but creatively. “This is a really interesting leg for us actually because when we did come to Australia about a year ago, earlier on in the tour, and because we couldn’t do all of the dates we wanted to then, I had it in the back of my mind that if things went well, we’d be able to come and do a more complete tour… It’s going to be a really fun time. I think it’s going to be a bit looser than the last leg and we have more miles on the new songs and we have some different stuff we want to try. I think it’s going to be a really exciting little jaunt,” explains Rawlings.

“And we have taken this little break so I feel like, just speaking for myself, there will be a freshness for me with all of the songs,” adds Welch.

While this tour feels like a continuation of their last Australian touchdown, the shape of the shows is shifting. Last year’s performances leaned heavily into Woodland, their 2025 release on Acony Records.

“It was very Woodlands centric,” Welch says. “Out of the 10 song record, it wouldn’t surprise me if every night we had been playing eight of them. It was a heaping helping of the new record. If we’ll do that this time, I’m not sure. Paul Kowert who played upright bass with us on the shows last year, he’s not coming to Australia this time. It will be a straight duet. I think that will affect the setlist this time.”

That return to the duo’s core dynamic opens new possibilities. “It’s well said that we do tend to, there are different parts of the music that shine when we are playing by ourselves,” Rawlings reflects. “Sometimes I like to think of it as a different, more nimble craft if you’re thinking of it like a boat. It’s easier to zig and to zag and in some cases that extends to the choice of the material. It’s easier to play different material if you don’t have any other people with you. We have a wider understanding of our catalogue than anyone else obviously.”

“Well said, we know us better than anyone else,” Welch laughs.

It’s a relationship the two were able to explore during the creation of Woodland, reflecting on your musical beginnings.

“We took a number of years off not really by design, the pandemic happened and our studio was hit by a tornado and we were at home playing in the living room and not ever playing on stage. It reminded me so much of when we were starting and we were trying to figure things out and trying to figure out what we wanted to sound like and what we wanted to do. I like to think that while I never would have done this voluntarily because we love being on the road and playing shows, I think it was really good for our playing and I think some of what we were about to bring to the last year and a half of touring and certainly to the album came from the time spent playing in the living room,” recalls Welch.

Woodland has further cemented the duo as pillars of modern American roots music. The album has been decorated with accolades, whilst their partnership, built on trust, musical empathy, and reverence for tradition, has been recognised for shaping the fabric of contemporary folk. The duo received their second Grammy Award for Woodland, taking out Best Folk Album, alongside an Album of the Year nomination. They were also named Duo or Group of the Year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards, arriving a decade after their Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting.

Australians get to witness that pairing this month – what an honour!