Rawlins Cross greet 33rd anniversary with Sunrise album, fall tour

“We can’t wait to get out and share the new music with our friends and fans!” Ian Mckinnon Rawlins Cross

East Coast Celtic-rock masters Rawlins Cross return with new music and a tour that reels and rolls through all four Atlantic provinces this fall.

Sunrise is the Newfoundland/nova Scotian band’s 11th album, due for worldwide release on Friday, led by the new single Love Is Alright. The seven-track release is a follow-up to its previous recording, 2019’s Flying Colours.

“It’s been a LONG two and a half years since we last stepped on a stage to play music together,” says Rawlins Cross piper and songwriter Ian Mckinnon. “Last fall, we made use of our downtime during the pandemic to gather in Nova Scotia and record a batch of new songs. We can’t wait to get out and share the new music with our friends and fans!”

The tour starts on Oct. 21 at New Glasgow’s Glasgow Square theatre, followed by a Sydney show at the Highland Arts Theatre on Oct. 22. After a pair of New Brunswick shows on Oct. 23 at Moncton’s Capitol Theatre and Oct. 24 at the Fredericton Playhouse, Rawlins Cross crosses Confederation Bridge to play Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre of the Arts on Oct. 26.

More Nova Scotia shows follow starting on Oct. 28 at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax, Oct. 29 at Yarmouth’s TH’YARC Playhouse & Arts Centre and Liverpool’s Astor Theatre on Oct. 30. The Sunrise Tour wraps up where the sun first meets the Atlantic coast, in St. John’s for a Nov. 5 concert at Holy Heart Theatre.

“The music on Sunrise is a collection of great new tunes, the result of our first real inhouse effort,” says Dave Panting, a co-founder of the band along with his brother Geoff.

“Geoff and I produced, Geoff engineered, and everybody was pitching in on everything, including transportation, logistics and gear setup. I think we are all very excited about how this project turned out.”

Mckinnon and the Pantings are joined on Sunrise by bassist/chapman stick maestro Brian Bourne, singer Joey Kitson and Howie Southwood on drums and percussion, all celebrating Rawlins Cross’s 33rd anniversary of fusing Irish, Scottish, world beat and pop-rock sounds into a uniquely East Coast mix.

Tickets for the Sunrise tour shows went on sale on Friday at the individual venue box offices and website.

For more information, visit www.rawlinscross.com.

Rawlins Cross, shown performing at the Spatz Theatre in Halifax in 2019, will celebrate their 33rd anniversary with their Sunrise album and fall tour.