Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

Sydney — Tuesday 10 September 2024

Returning to Australia for the first time in nearly a decade, Grammy Award-winning Nashville icons Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will make their long-awaited Sydney Opera House debut in January. Beloved for their timeless sound, masterful storytelling and haunting melodies, the folk duo will celebrate their acclaimed new album Woodland (2024) with two nights in the acoustically reinvigorated Concert Hall.

Welch and Rawlings’ latest record Woodland continues to showcase the duo’s unique musical synergy. A tribute to their recording studio, nearly lost in the tornadoes that swept through Nashville in 2020 and lifted off the roof, the pair were forced to rescue their master tapes and gear in the middle of the storm. Combining gentle folk rock and string-soaked Americana, the record has already garnered sterling reviews including five stars from The Guardian.

Sydney Opera House Head of Contemporary Music, Ben Marshall, says: “This one’s a big deal and a very long time in the making – it’s an immense honour to finally welcome music royalty Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to the Concert Hall stage for two unmissable summer evenings. “Americana” doesn’t fully capture these two sonic alchemists. They transmute pain into transcendence through their harmonic, revelatory take on bluegrass, country and folk, linking the intensity of punk with the tenderness and feeling of Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Get ready for goosebumps to break out and your heart to hit your mouth – Gillian and David are coming to Sydney Opera House at the peak of their combined powers, and they won’t stay on sale long”.

In a celebrated career that spans 30 years, 10 studio albums and multiple Grammy Awards, Welch and Rawlings have taken audiences on a journey deep into the dark heart of Americana, from whispery acoustic folk to full-bodied band epics that summon the ghosts of music’s past. After forming a musical partnership at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, the pair relocated to Nashville where they recorded their 1996 debut album Revival alongside their unforgettable work on the smash soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Their 2001 record Time (The Revelator) is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the millennium, and their 2020 album All the Good Times won the Grammy for Best Folk Album.