A week from Saturday, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will bring their Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning tour to the Newport Folk Festival. This is the final confirmed Northeast date for the project, which they debuted this past April. However, the pair have just added some additional fall shows.

The tour, which takes its name from the Grateful Dead’s 1981 double live album, Reckoning finds the pair approaching the band’s repertoire from an acoustic perspective. As Welch told Relix earlier this year, “It’s interesting because I don’t listen to too many people covering the Dead. I like the Dead so much that I’m not very well acquainted with other people doing Dead songs. But let me just say, I’m kind of surprised when I hear people doing them. I think I’m kind of a freak but I have this other impression of what the Dead sounds like, and they’re really heavy to me. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Not that it’s dour or dark though, because I hear this continuous pushing against that, this continuous attempt to transcend. I hear the Dead as ecstatic. One of the things that speaks to me about their music is trying to get lost in the moment. It’s shocking how often that works.”

Rawlings added, “As a band, the Dead were able to deconstruct music. Sometimes there were things you wanted that they would take away, like a melody or tonality or the rhythm. Sometimes they would go all the way into space where they’ve taken all the nutritional value out of it. You’ve lost the pulse of the music, you’ve lost the tonality and you’re just out there. Then when it comes back, you have this feeling like someone is showing you music for the very first time.

The pair will perform their Acoustic Reckoning material in DC, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina from October 18-23, with the details below. This will follow up their previously confirmed August dates in Oregon and Washington. Presale for the October shows is underway with the passcode RECKONING. A general onsale follows on Friday.

Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning

Sat Jul 25, 2026 Newport Folk Festival Newport, RI

Fri Aug 14, 2026 Revolution Hall Portland, OR

Sat Aug 15, 2026 Revolution Hall Portland, OR

Sun Aug 16, 2026 Revolution Hall Portland, OR

Mon Aug 17, 2026 Revolution Hall Portland, OR

Wed Aug 19, 2026 The Moore Theatre Seattle, WA

Thu Aug 20, 2026 The Moore Theatre Seattle, WA

Sun Oct 18, 2026 Warner Theatre Washington, DC

Mon Oct 19, 2026 The Lyric Baltimore Baltimore, MD

Tue Oct 20, 2026 Carpenter Theatre Richmond, VA

Thu Oct 22, 2026 Berglund Performing Arts Theatre Roanoke, VA

Fri Oct 23, 2026 Thomas Wolfe Auditorium Asheville, NC