As UK folk-rock troubadour Withered Hand gears up to release his long-awaited ‘How To Love’ LP, he reveals the album’s final single ‘Feelings’, while also sharing a live acoustic video for the latest single ‘Crippled Love’. His first new music in nine years, this record will officially be released on April 28 via Reveal Records.
Withered Hand is the nom de plume of Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter Dan Willson, who originally hails from London. On this album, Withered Hand continues to live up to his reputation as one of Scotland’s most gifted songwriters.
“This cry-for-help of a song sums up years of trying to medicate uncomfortable feelings with whatever I could get my hands on. If the album opens with this car crash, then the rest of the songs on ‘How To Love’ are imbued with my attempts to keep stumbling away from living like that,” says Dan Willson.
“My own mental health struggles in the past meant life got really dark before I was willing to surrender three years ago and become willing to learn to live sober. It’s a healthy catharsis rocking out with the band on this song though, repaying a debt to some of the harder music I grew up with in the 90s.”
“Don’t stop, tell me that I earned this one
Cos one is one too many, too many’s not enoughI
swallowed my pride, I just want the harder stuff
My appetite anaesthetises love”
Earlier, Withered Hand released the lead track ‘Waking Up’, which has garnered worldwide support and heavy airplay on tastemaker stations including BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio. The radio edit involved a collaboration with producer Mark Freegard (The Breeders, Del Amitri, New Model Army, Lush, Pale Saints), while the video was filmed by Juliana Capes in Portobello, Edinburgh.
Produced, recorded and mixed by renowned producer Tony Doogan (Mogwai, David Byrne, Teenage Fanclub, The Twilight Sad, Belle & Sebastian, The Delgados) at Castle of Doom Studios in Glasgow, the new album features guest appearances by King Creosote and Mercury-nominated English songwriter Kathryn Williams.
Withered Hand’s acclaimed ‘New Gods’ LP (2014) was released on vinyl via Slumberland Records, featuring Scottish luminaries from Belle & Sebastian, Frightened Rabbit and The Vaselines, as well as Pam Berry of seminal 90’s US noisepop band Black Tambourine, propelling the album straight into the charts.
Willson began writing songs and singing in his thirties following the birth of his first child and the death of a close friend. With a wayward tenor and unaffected charm onstage, he has come to be celebrated as a songwriter and lyricist of rare wit and remarkable honesty. With songs picked up by MTV and cult series ‘Skins’, he’s gained a legion of fans including Jarvis Cocker and Rolling Stone USA, who deemed him an Artist to Watch.
As of April 21, ‘Feelings’ is available everywhere digitally, including Apple Music and Spotify. The ‘How To Love’ album, out April 28, can be orderd on CD, vinyl and digitally via Bandcamp. Withered Hand presents album release shows in Cardiff (April 21st), London (April 22nd) and Edinburgh (April 28th), and also appearing on BBC Scotland’s Quay Sessions (May 3rd) on the back of performances in Manchester and for Marc Riley’s BBC 6 Music show.
TRACK LIST
1. Feelings 03:55
2. Crippled Love 06:52
3. Waking Up 03:56
4. How To Love 06:46
5. Serenity Prayer 06:16
6. Misery & Company 04:13
7. Give Myself Away 04:49
8. Still Quiet Voice 04:48
9. Comedown 04:34
