Cosmic cowboys, The Hanging Stars, add a gig at The Joiners to their UK tour on Friday 29 March, after releasing their fifth album, On a Golden Shore, via Loose Music.
The tour announcement follows the release of recent single Sweet Light, a glorious onslaught of blissed-out electric guitars and wide-screen pedal steel.
Sitting somewhere between a countrified Lou Reed and more contemporary acts like Kurt Vile and Allah-Las, this Ralla/Olson composition is a yearning anthem to a love once lost.
The accompanying video is part-inspired by the British kitchen sink dramas of the 60s: picture a smoky nightclub situation, cigarettes tracing ladders, a band blowing Dixie – only filmed on a cold December morning at the bands’ HQ, The Betsey Trotwood pub in Clerkenwell, London.
Smartly sequenced, On a Golden Shore, proceeds in clusters of songs – commencing with the free and easy choogle of Let Me Dream Of You, encompassing the sunny glam of Sweet Light, the baggy Balearic waft of Happiness Is A Bird, the pan pipes and bongos of the exotic Golden Shore, through to the rolling banjo of No Way Spell and the celestial cascades of Heart In A Box.
Featuring singer/guitarist Richard Olson, drummer Paulie Cobra, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Ralla, plus freshman bassist Paul Milne, the album’s backbone was laid down over just eight days and was mostly recorded live, with even the solos done as a piece.
Additional pedal-steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte also created and added his parts at his London studio bringing ‘shimmery psychedelic goodness’.
Fashioned instinctively, the resultant On A Golden Shore is ultimately an album of sensation as much as thought, filled with fleeting moments of blissful excess, and stumbling, rushing flutters of sound; its evanescent psychedelia, divine choruses, and shards of strings combine into an infectious, compelling Cosmic Heartbreak Boogie.
With headline shows nationwide, the full list of The Hanging Stars UK Tour Dates can be found as follows:
THE HANGING STARS – UK TOUR DATES 2024
11th March – London, Rough Trade West (5pm)
19th March – Norwich, Norwich Arts Centre
21st March – Manchester, The Yard
22nd March – Glasgow, The Glad Café
23rd March – Nottingham, The Angel
27th March – London, The Moth Club w/ Gerry Love
29th March – Southampton, Joiners
31st March – Bristol, Hen and Chicken
4th April – Hassocks, Mid Sussex Music Hall
11th April – Liverpool, St Michael in the Hamlet Church
12th April – Isle of Wight, Strings Bar & Venue
19th April – Staffordshire, The Foxlowe Arts Centre
26th April – Folkestone, The Chambers
29th May – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
30th May – Chelmsford, Hot Box
15th June – Very Good Trip Festival, Chateau de Bellocq FR
Tickets on sale here:
https://www.thehangingstars.com/shows.
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