Midsummer Grooving

Live in Ardmore, PA last week/ Photo by Chris Sikich

Dear reader,

I hope this finds you hydrated, irrigated and satiated to perfection as we glide over the solstice and the Earth tips the other way, spinning its way back to midwinter, up here in the northern hemisphere. This comes to you from outside of a supermarket in Nashville, where I’m fixin’ to buy some fizzy water and cat food - namely Fancy Feast, natch.

I’ve just spent the last few weeks rocking around north east America in a black van, stopping every few hundred miles to bombard smiling people with amplified beat music. My ears are hissing and my fingernails are tattered, but these shows have been a walking miracle. I’ve waxed rhapsodic a lot recently on social media about the joys of returning to rock performance full time in the USA - let the rhapsody roll on. It’s exhilarating and unhinged - a celebration of a kind, a sacrament almost. Thanks to EVERYONE who’s played with me on these shows over the last few months and to ALL who’ve attended them. We have one final gig this summer, at the Lawrence Kansas Library this Friday, June 26 - it’s sold out. More dates will be announced for the winter.

After that, I’ll be promoting my forthcoming book Stranded In The Future (out July 7) and fab new album The Confuser (out July 24). The book is a semi-fictional look back at my early attempts at a career; the record is that same career’s latest chapter. Early reactions to both have been positive: I hope you enjoy them both as much as I did creating them. I’ll be making book instore appearances at Rough Trade in NYC (July 24) talking with Simon Shaw, and Porter Square Books, Boston, MA (July 27) in conversation with Brett Milano.

Over the next few months I finally reach Norway, the British Isles, France, Germany and more Norway again (Yaysville!) before one-offs in Sweden, Denmark, Finland (my first visit in 32 years!) and Italy. I’ll be solo acoustic for most of these shows except the ones indicated, where I’ll have a full band. Here’s where we’ll be:

September 19 - St Leonards-on-Sea UK
September 23 - Cambridge UK (full band show)
September 24 - Ipswich UK
September 25 - Cardiff UK
September 26 - Manchester UK
September 27 - Gateshead UK
September 29 - Glasgow UK
October 1 - Belfast UK
October 2 - Dublin IRELAND
October 4 - Galway IRELAND
October 6 - Hebden Bridge UK (full band show)
October 7 - Reading UK (full band show)
October 8 - Bath UK (full band show)
October 9 - Twyford UK (full band show)
October 10 - London UK (full band show)
October 11 - Paris FRANCE
October 17 - Landsberg GERMANY
October 18 - Berlin GERMANY
October 20 - Bergen NORWAY
October 21 - Trondheim NORWAY
October 23 - Drammen NORWAY
October 24 - Randaberg NORWAY
October 25 - Oslo NORWAY
October 27 - Copenhagen DENMARK
October 28 - Stockholm SWEDEN
October 30 - Helsinki FINLAND

Tickets for all shows are available here.

With that I am diving into the aisle marked pet supplies. Happy Midsummer: may all your feasts be fancy!

Love on ya,

Mr H

P.S. The first three singles for the album are out now:

“I Am This Thing”
“My Dead Astronaut”
“How To Feel Alright”