For the encore of their 2007 performance at the quirky home of the London Symphony Orchestra, St. Lukes, Gillian Welch and long-time musical partner, David Rawlings, brought out the members of Old Crow Medicine Show to perform a moving rendition of the Weight. This broadcast aired on BBC4…

Welch, Rawlings & OCMS – The Weight

Last year, Gillian Welch’s longtime musical collaborator Dave Rawlings released his first solo album A Friend Of A Friend under the clever moniker – Dave Rawlings Machine. The album, which made my Top 6 Of The Last 6, features Welch, along with members of OCMS, Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) and Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes/MoF), and was recently nominated for four Americana Music Association Awards, the most of any nominee this year. Rawlings will hit the road with the Machine for a 14-date run, which includes a two-night stand at the Bowery Ballroom as well as stops high profile stops at Bonnaroo and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

If you’re not into a night of rootsy-Americana, than maybe you’ll be interested in hitting on these recently announced tours…

• Scotty fave Crowded House line up a lengthy summer trek
• Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek team up for a short Reflection Eternal run
• Blues-rockers Heartless Bastards to head cross-country
• Deadmau5 to debut his new LED mau5head this summer
• The Mountain Goats mix headlining and support gigs this June
• Alice In Chains, Deftones & Mastodon team up for an arena run

Finally, as My Morning Jacket gear up for their summer festival appearances and opener duties for Tom Petty & The Heartbeakers, the band’s front man Jim James (aka Yim Yames) continues to keep busy during MMJ’s down time. James will team up with singer-songwriter Daniel Martin Moore and cellist-vocalists Ben Sollee to form the Appalachian Voices. The trio will head out for a nine-date tour, in an effort to raise public awareness of the devastating practice of Mountaintop Removal coal mining throughout Appalachia, with a portion of the proceeds from the tour set to benefit Appalachian Voices, an organization devoted to ending mountaintop removal coal mining. Tickets for the entire run will go on-sale on Friday.

As we continue our year end house cleaning around these parts, I thought I’d chime in once again with a list of my own. As has become the half yearly tradition around these parts, in lieu of a traditional top ten list we opt to do something a little different with our Top 6 of both halves of the year.

While my Top 6 Of The First 6 seemed to have some pretty obvious choices, the second half of the year’s list is mostly dominated by debut records – so let’s get on with it…

6. Fanfarlo – Reservoir

I’ve had Fanfarlo’s debut album for so long, that I almost forgot that it officially got released this September. Loaded with orchestral folk-rock that has become all the rage in recent years, the album features everything from saws and clarinets to cellos and ukuleles to melodicas and thermins that all combine with lead singers Simon Balthazar’s booming vocals to produce a cacophony of melodic noise that doesn’t fall far from the Neutral Milk Hotel/Arcade Fire tree.

READ ON for the rest of my Top 6 Of The Last 6…

Singer-guitarist-songwriter-producer David Rawlings is probably best known as Gillian Welch’s longtime musical collaborator, the duo have been singing and recording together since the mid-90s. While it’s been six years since we’ve gotten a new studio album out of Welch, she’s teamed up with Rawlings along with the members of OCMS, Benmont Tench of Heartbreakers fame and Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) under the moniker the Dave Rawlings Machine to release his debut album A Friend of a Friend.

The album, which may be one of the best Americana records of the year, is a mix of modern and traditional covers – including takes on songs by Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams and Neil Young – along with a handful of Rawlings originals. Let’s check out this live performance of Sweet Tooth from this past August…

Old Crow Medicine Show, Dave Rawlings Machine, The Felice Brothers and Justin Townes Earle team up for The Big Surprise Tour. READ ON for more info on what’s sure to be an amazing night of music…