Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will return to Australia in February and March 2026 for a second run of their Woodland tour following a completely sold-out stretch earlier this year. After packing the Sydney Opera House across three nights and filling Hamer Hall in Melbourne across five performances, the Americana folk icons will once again bring their acclaimed two-guitar, two-voice format to Australian audiences.
This new chapter of More Evenings With Gillian Welch & David Rawlings will take the duo across the East Coast, beginning in Queensland and winding south through New South Wales, the ACT and Victoria, with a detour to Adelaide before closing in regional Victoria. The tour features capital cities, major regional stops and intimate venues, embracing both the concert hall prestige of QPAC and the historic surrounds of Coal Creek in Korumburra.
For more than 25 years, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have shaped the sound and standards of modern American folk music. Their musical partnership began after meeting at Berklee College Of Music, a connection that led both artists to Nashville where their intertwined voices and shared vision flourished.
Welch’s early career breakthrough came after Emmylou Harris recorded Orphan Girl, a track that would lead to her 1996 debut Revival. A monumental second album, Time (The Revelator), arrived in 2001 and confirmed the pair as leaders in contemporary Americana, with stark arrangements and songwriting rooted in the emotional history of the United States.
The duo became household names in roots circles thanks to their work on the Grammy-winning soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a moment that helped introduce old-time American folk to a new global audience. Their catalogue continued to deepen with Soul Journey and the long-awaited 2011 release The Harrow & The Harvest before the pair issued All The Good Times (Are Past & Gone) during the height of the pandemic.
In 2024 they returned with Woodland, their first album of original material together in more than a decade, released through their independent label Acony Records. The album went on to win the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album, making Welch and Rawlings the first duo to win the category more than once.
Their live performances are famed for subtlety over spectacle. With only two guitars, two voices and their uncanny musical bond, a Welch-Rawlings performance feels more like a shared breath than a traditional concert, echoing mountain ballads, Appalachian folk and quiet moments from American history.
More Evenings With Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Australia 2026
February 2026
13 February, Concert Hall, QPAC, Brisbane, QLD*
14 February, HOTA – Home Of The Arts, Gold Coast, QLD
15 February, Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, QLD
17 February, State Theatre, Sydney, NSW
19 February, Civic Theatre, Newcastle, NSW
20 February, Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra, ACT
22 February, Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, SA
24 February, The Forum, Melbourne, VIC
27 February, Palais Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
28 February, Coal Creek Community Park, Korumburra, VIC
March 2026
1 March, Costa Hall, Geelong, VIC
*Brisbane on sale Tuesday 25 November
Pre-sale opens Friday 14 November at 9am AEDT, with general on-sale beginning Monday 17 November at 9am AEDT.
Welch and Rawlings have always resisted over-production, choosing instead to let the silence surrounding their songs breathe. Their catalogue references the Carter Family, the Stanley Brothers and early country blues traditions, while drawing from rock, punk spirit and mid-century folk revival movements. Their songs are haunted with miners, outlaws, railroad ghosts and lost lovers, yet remain human and intimate enough to sit comfortably in 21st-century folk collections.
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