Traditional folk music is a genre that keeps going strong even after all these years. It is the one genre that continues to tell stories through song. No artist stands strong in the Americana community than songwriter and guitarist David Rawlings. Recently, he released a new track off his forthcoming album, Poor David’s Almanack. The new single titled, “Cumberland Gap” premiered through Rolling Stone Country who describes it as both “haunting” and a “Southern Gothic stomp.” 

“Cumberland Gap”  everything fans love about Rawlings. The sound is very traditional folk and it holds on strong throughout its running track. The title comes from a small pass in the stretch of the Appalachian Mountains where Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia meet. The gap in Rawling’s song is “the devil of a gap”, telling the tale of a man preparing to make his way through the pass as part of a dangerous pilgrimage to Kentucky. To listen to the song, scroll down and check it out.

The third album from Rawlings, Poor David’s Almanack, is set to be released on August 11th via Acony Records and will feature long time collaborator, Gillian Welch. The new album which has ten new songs was engineered by Ken Scott (Beatles, David Bowie) and Matt Andrews and was created on analog tape during a week of sessions at the Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Along with Welch, Rawlings is joined by Willie Watson, Paul Kowert, Brittany Haas, Ketch Secor and Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes to produce songs that will keep one company all year round.

“Cumberland Gap” was one of the last songs to be recorded and yet one of the first songs written. According Rolling Stone Country, Rawlings expressed that “It started out as a groove and melody and chords. The music felt like it had some kind of adventurous feeling, or a feeling of pioneering.”

David Rawlings- Poor David’s Almanack Track List

01 Midnight Train
02 Money Is The Meat In The Coconut
03 Cumberland Gap
04 Airplane
05 Lindsey Button
06 Come On Over My House
07 Guitar Man
08 Yup
09 Good God A Woman
10 Put ‘Em Up Solid

Fans can pre-order the record here.

Rawlings and his band, the all-star Dave Rawlings Machine, will start the first half of their national tour mid August to help support the new album as well as perform songs from their first two records, A Friend of a Friend and Nashville Obsolete. To check out the full list of dates for the tour, take a peak below.

Dave Rawlings Machine Tour Dates – Tickets can be purchase here.

August 16 /// Louisville, KY /// WL Lyons Brown Theatre
August 17 /// St. Louis, MO /// Sheldon Concert Hall
August 18 /// Kansas City, MO /// Folly Theater
August 20 /// Lyons, CO /// Rocky Mountain Folks Festival
August 23 /// Minneapolis, MN /// Pantages Theatre
August 24 /// Madison, WI /// The Capitol Theater
August 25 /// Chicago, IL /// Thalia Hall
August 26 /// Bloomington, IN /// The Bluebird

More dates to be announced soon.