Gillian Welch will release her first album in eight years, The Harrow & The Harvest , on June 28 via Acony Records. The album features ten new songs recorded at Welch’s own Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and produced by her longtime partner David Rawlings. On May 30, 2011, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will embark on a North American tour supporting The Harrow & The Harvest that will continue through the summer and into the fall. The acclaimed duo will visit over seventy cities in their most extensive tour in over a decade.

Colin Meloy (The Decemberists) has heard the album and describes it as “a new Southern sound…with the sort of songs you wouldn’t be surprised to hear issuing from some verdant, wooded hollow in Appalachia; Songs you’d expect to hear hollered from an Asheville grange hall, all too late in the evening. Songs with the wry humor of the back porch. Listen to this record with the lights low. Listen to it on an old radio, cradled next to your ear.”

In a move to help independent retailers, Welch will preview The Harrow & The Harvest at 38 independent record stores coast to coast in the week prior to release. A complete listing of Listening Party dates, times and locations is available online.