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A man holding a guitar and woman both in cowboy hats look pensive away from the camera exuding a country music vibe.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

23 – 25 January 2025

In the Concert Hall

Contemporary Music

Returning to Australia for the first time in nearly a decade, multiple Grammy Award-winning Nashville duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings celebrate the release of their acclaimed new record with three nights of dark, shimmering Americana. 

Best availability 23 Jan

A night with everything you could ask for … a memory you’ll never lose.

The Sydney Morning Herald

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Unforgettable songs from the dark heart of Americana

In a celebrated career that spans 30 years, 10 studio albums and multiple Grammy Awards, Nashville duo Gillian Welch and David 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. Now, they return to Australia for the first time since their electrifying performances in 2016, making their Sydney Opera House debut over three nights in the iconic Concert Hall.

After forming a musical partnership at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Gillian (pronounced with a hard G) and David relocated to Nashville to record their debut album Revival (1996), which was followed by the rustic classic Hell Among the Yearlings (1998) and the duo’s unforgettable work on the smash soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Their 2001 record Time (The Revelator), a soul-shaking shimmy through American history, rock ’n' roll and country music, is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the millennium.

Named for their Nashville recording studio, the duo’s critically acclaimed new album Woodland (2024) marks a culmination of Welch’s and Rawlings’s rich artistic partnership, combining gentle folk rock, string-soaked Americana and dark nights of the soul for a sound that feels both familiar and out of time. Their chemistry in the recording studio is matched only by their emotional intuition on stage. Don’t miss them – lest it be another decade before they return.

Presented by Sydney Opera House

A man holding a guitar and woman both in cowboy hats look pensive away from the camera exuding a country music vibe.

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