Now that we’ve finally heard Damien Rice’s new title song to forthcoming Tibet documentary When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun, I’m even more anxious to hear those Maverick Movie Award-winning new compositions from Thom Yorke and Philip Glass as well.

Just as we predicted, Rice performed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival last night, opening for the documentary’s official screening. The song is every bit as stunning as director Dirk Simon told us it would be and Rice sounds better than ever, despite having been out of the spotlight a bit since his split with Lisa Hannigan. In an interesting twist, this performance also marks the premiere of Rice performing with a new, as-yet-unknown female singer (Julia ?).

Watch Rice and company sing “What If I’m Wrong?” with no microphones here or below (via Love Angeles):

**Update: We posted a video of this performance here.

We opened this year with an exclusive post about Radiohead’s Thom Yorke writing three new songs for upcoming Tibet documentary When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun, which will also include original music by Damien Rice and Philip Glass. Director Dirk Simon graciously allowed us to share that Yorke bit, but we were sworn to secrecy regarding the fact that Rice is set to unveil his first new song in years: the “title” track to the documentary, “What If I’m Wrong?”

Until tonight, that is. I’m still not entirely sure why the “title” track’s name shares no actual words with the doc’s title (perhaps there’s a referential lyric in the yet-to-be-heard tune), but either way, Rice has completed recording of the song and will help introduce the film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday (Feb. 7) with a live performance of “What If I’m Wrong?”

Say what you will about his previous work, but something tells me Rice (post-Lisa Hannigan split) has some brilliant songs/albums in the queue. Not to mention this contribution to an important documentary, which is undoubtedly a labor of love for all those involved, is the perfect stage for a heartfelt comeback from the Irish singer/songwriter.