THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Woodland is the 10th studio album from dritically acclaimed Americana songbirds Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings — and their first full-length since 2020’s Grammy-winning all-covers collection, All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone).
Named for and recorded at Welch and Rawlings’ own Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, the 10-song set features both full-band sessions and intimate duet performances, all tied together by the duo’s signature old-time sound and evocative lyricism. Opening cut and lead single Empty Trainload of Sky provides a languid taster of the starkly vivid emotionality to come.
“Woodland is at the heart of everything we do, and has been for the last 20-some years,” the duo say in a press 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, grief, destruction, permanence. Now.”
Welch’s rich and remarkable career spans over 25 years, and she and her musical partner Rawlings are a pillar of the modern acoustic music world. They have been hailed as modern masters and protectors of American folk. After moving to Nashville in the early 1990s, Welch was launched into the public consciousness when Emmylou Harris recorded a cover of her song Orphan Girl. Her career continued to flourish as her 1996 debut Revival, produced by T Bone Burnett, was released to critical acclaim. Firmly on the roots-music map following the release, Welch followed up that Grammy-nominated album release with 1998’s Hell Among the Yearlings, a stark duet record with Rawlings, further solidifying the duo as a force in the folk scene.
For her work as executive producer as well as a performer and songwriter on the eight-times platinum O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, Welch was awarded the Album of the Year Grammy, and was simultaneously nominated for her own Time (The Revelator), revered as one of the best albums of the 2000s, if not all time. It was Welch and Rawlings’ first on their own record label, Acony Records, helping to establish the duo’s fierce commitment to independent music.”
