Biography
Known first and foremost as a guitarist, songwriter, producer, and singer—in roughly that sequence—David Rawlings built his reputation through a long-running creative alliance with Gillian Welch. On defining records such as the 2001 release Time (The Revelator) and 2011’s The Harrow & the Harvest, the pair emerged as one of the most resonant folk acts of the new millennium, their sound rooted in Appalachian, bluegrass, country, and additional strands of American folk heritage. Rawlings’ supportive vocal harmonies and inventive guitar work—most often performed on a 1935 Epiphone Olympic archtop—have positioned him among Americana’s foremost artisans, leading to joint projects with Old Crow Medicine Show, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, Robyn Hitchcock, and numerous others. Stepping forward in 2009 with A Friend of a Friend, he fronted David Rawlings Machine, a project that issued the follow-up Nashville Obsolete in 2015. Two years afterward he issued his debut solo effort, Poor David’s Almanack. Rawlings and Welch received an Academy Award nomination for the song they co-wrote in 2018, “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” featured in the film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; two years later the traditional collection All the Good Times (Are Past and Gone) earned them a Grammy. After restoring his Nashville studio, heavily damaged by a tornado, the duo tracked their 2024 album Woodland on the same premises.
Rawlings first drew attention in 1996 upon the appearance of Welch’s initial album, Revival. The two had become acquainted while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. There they developed a period-inflected fusion of country, folk, and blues anchored by Rawlings’ distinctive guitar technique and Welch’s evocative singing. In 1998 they reunited for Hell Among the Yearlings, again produced by T-Bone Burnett. Two years later Rawlings and Welch joined Ryan Adams for the latter’s solo debut Heartbreaker; the record opens with an exchange between Rawlings and Adams about a Morrissey composition and continues with the buoyant “To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High),” jointly written by the pair. They also composed “Touch, Feel & Lose,” later included on Adams’ 2001 follow-up Gold. That same year Rawlings took his first turn behind the board, assuming production duties from Burnett for his and Welch’s third album, Time (The Revelator). The next year the duo became co-owners of Woodland Sound Studios in East Nashville, a facility that would shape his working methods. His initial production assignment there was the duo’s fourth album, Soul Journey, issued in 2003. One year later he produced Old Crow Medicine Show’s commercial debut O.C.M.S. and supplied guitar to its closing track “Wagon Wheel.” He even accompanied the group on tour to support the release while banjoist and guitarist Critter Fuqua was unavailable. Two years afterward Rawlings helmed the band’s next record, Big Iron World, sharing songwriting credit on nearly half its material. In 2007 he appeared on Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga, and the following year he sustained his association with Old Crow Medicine Show by co-writing “Methamphetamine” with Ketch Secor. Beginning in 2006, Rawlings and Welch performed live with various musician associates under the name David Rawlings Machine, placing Rawlings in the lead role for the first time; that venture yielded the 2009 debut A Friend of a Friend on the Acony Records imprint they share.
While these activities continued, the duo gradually assembled material for a new album finally issued in 2011. The Harrow & the Harvest marked their first joint release since 2003 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Over the subsequent four years Rawlings toured with Welch and contributed to projects by Damien Rice and Willie Watson. In 2015 David Rawlings Machine resurfaced with the seven-song mini-album Nashville Obsolete. Two years later the guitarist and Welch assembled a studio ensemble that included Watson, Paul Kowert, Brittany Haas, Ketch Secor, and Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes at Nashville’s Woodland Studio. Working to analog tape over a week-long session engineered by Ken Scott and Matt Andrews, they captured the ten-track Poor David’s Almanack, issued by Acony in August and promptly followed by a David Rawlings Machine tour. In 2018 Rawlings and Welch supplied two original songs to the Coen Brothers’ anthology Western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. They performed “Carefree Drifter” together, while Willie Watson and actor Tim Blake Nelson sang “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” the latter track receiving an Academy Award nomination.
Throughout the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, Rawlings and Welch captured an unadorned set of traditional numbers and covers titled All the Good Times (Are Past and Gone). Although they had functioned as a unit since the mid-1990s, this was the first album to carry both names on its cover; it subsequently received the 2021 Grammy for Best Folk Album. During the same interval the pair simultaneously composed new material while reconstructing their studio, which a 2020 tornado had severely damaged. The overlapping labors of restoration and composition formed the foundation of 2024’s Woodland, their second album credited to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, titled in homage to the studio itself.
Rawlings first drew attention in 1996 upon the appearance of Welch’s initial album, Revival. The two had become acquainted while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. There they developed a period-inflected fusion of country, folk, and blues anchored by Rawlings’ distinctive guitar technique and Welch’s evocative singing. In 1998 they reunited for Hell Among the Yearlings, again produced by T-Bone Burnett. Two years later Rawlings and Welch joined Ryan Adams for the latter’s solo debut Heartbreaker; the record opens with an exchange between Rawlings and Adams about a Morrissey composition and continues with the buoyant “To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High),” jointly written by the pair. They also composed “Touch, Feel & Lose,” later included on Adams’ 2001 follow-up Gold. That same year Rawlings took his first turn behind the board, assuming production duties from Burnett for his and Welch’s third album, Time (The Revelator). The next year the duo became co-owners of Woodland Sound Studios in East Nashville, a facility that would shape his working methods. His initial production assignment there was the duo’s fourth album, Soul Journey, issued in 2003. One year later he produced Old Crow Medicine Show’s commercial debut O.C.M.S. and supplied guitar to its closing track “Wagon Wheel.” He even accompanied the group on tour to support the release while banjoist and guitarist Critter Fuqua was unavailable. Two years afterward Rawlings helmed the band’s next record, Big Iron World, sharing songwriting credit on nearly half its material. In 2007 he appeared on Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga, and the following year he sustained his association with Old Crow Medicine Show by co-writing “Methamphetamine” with Ketch Secor. Beginning in 2006, Rawlings and Welch performed live with various musician associates under the name David Rawlings Machine, placing Rawlings in the lead role for the first time; that venture yielded the 2009 debut A Friend of a Friend on the Acony Records imprint they share.
While these activities continued, the duo gradually assembled material for a new album finally issued in 2011. The Harrow & the Harvest marked their first joint release since 2003 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Over the subsequent four years Rawlings toured with Welch and contributed to projects by Damien Rice and Willie Watson. In 2015 David Rawlings Machine resurfaced with the seven-song mini-album Nashville Obsolete. Two years later the guitarist and Welch assembled a studio ensemble that included Watson, Paul Kowert, Brittany Haas, Ketch Secor, and Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes at Nashville’s Woodland Studio. Working to analog tape over a week-long session engineered by Ken Scott and Matt Andrews, they captured the ten-track Poor David’s Almanack, issued by Acony in August and promptly followed by a David Rawlings Machine tour. In 2018 Rawlings and Welch supplied two original songs to the Coen Brothers’ anthology Western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. They performed “Carefree Drifter” together, while Willie Watson and actor Tim Blake Nelson sang “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” the latter track receiving an Academy Award nomination.
Throughout the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, Rawlings and Welch captured an unadorned set of traditional numbers and covers titled All the Good Times (Are Past and Gone). Although they had functioned as a unit since the mid-1990s, this was the first album to carry both names on its cover; it subsequently received the 2021 Grammy for Best Folk Album. During the same interval the pair simultaneously composed new material while reconstructing their studio, which a 2020 tornado had severely damaged. The overlapping labors of restoration and composition formed the foundation of 2024’s Woodland, their second album credited to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, titled in homage to the studio itself.
Albums
Singles
