The long wait is finally over! I am grateful to announce a new Withered Hand album “How To Love” for Reveal Records releasing April 28th, 2023. The artist known as Withered Hand . While a London native, he has based himself in Edinburgh for some time.
His elevating new single “Waking Up”, effectively the first single from his “How To Love” new album. Released via Reveal Records . Withered Hand (aka singer-songwriter Dan Willson) collaborated with Mark Freegard (The Breeders, Del Amitri, New Model Army, Lush, Pale Saints) effectively the first single from his “How To Love” album. Being the first track we’ve heard from the he’s given us good reason to both look forward to the album he is to release on April 28th and also explore his back catalogue, the material of which was strong enough to get him a record deal with Slumberland Records.
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 is the nom de plume of Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter Dan Willson, the new album, he continues to live up to his reputation as one of Scotland’s most gifted songwriters. Following his acclaimed debut “Good News” LP came 2014’s “New Gods” LP, both of which released on vinyl via Slumberland Records and featured Scottish luminaries from Belle & Sebastian, Frightened Rabbit and The Vaselines, as well as Pam Berry of seminal 90’s US noisepop band Black Tambourine.
Dan Willson notes, “It’s hard to put down your worries when you’re so used to carrying them around that they seem like part of who you are. This song is about taking a long hard honest look in the mirror and about the unfolding process of trying to trim my rudder a little every day to do something about what I see there. In my mind I was channeling a Street Legal-era Dylan vibe with that strident chord pattern and Pete’s swirling Hammond organ and brass and the band bring a lot of joy to this arrangement, we had fun with it”.
Willson started 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.
the band:
Dan Willson – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Malcom Benzie – Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals
Fraser Hughes – Bass, Backing Vocals
Owen Curtis Williams – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Peter Liddle – Keyboards
Richard Merchant – Trumpet
Ross McCrae – Trombone
Lynsey Payne – Saxophone
Eva Willson – Backing Vocals
Eugene Willson – Backing Vocals
The Fat Angel Sings 