Ground Control Touring

For nearly a decade, American songwriter Julie Byrne has moved through the world as a characteristically private artist largely outside the public eye. Raised in western New York State, now living in New York City, she has counted many places as home since committing her life to her work. Byrne’s poetic, evocative songcraft pulls imagery from the road and takes its shape from the evolving impressions of friendship, love, and loss. She taught herself guitar after picking it up when her father became ill and could no longer play the instrument himself.

As a performer, she carries an aura of warmth and vulnerability, an innate musicality connected to the natural world; there is real gravity in her ability to make that a shared feeling. And just as gracefully, she can recede from view; there were six years between her acclaimed breakthrough, Not Even Happiness, and its proper follow-up, The Greater Wings.

Released in 2023 on Ghostly International, The Greater Wings found Byrne emerging from a deeply trying and generative period with powerful, lustrous, and life-affirming music; her signature fingerpicked guitar sound widened by lush synth tones, piano, harp, and strings. The Greater Wings became one of the year’s celebrated releases (including Pitchfork’s Best New Music and five stars from The Guardian). and Byrne toured the world throughout.