New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Missing Piece Group) This week, Ben Watt, best known as one-half of
Everything But The Girl and CEO of Buzzin' Fly Records, will head stateside for his first-ever solo performances in the United States. Watt will arrive in the wake of his critically acclaimed solo album Hendra and for the release of his much-anticipated second book, Romany and Tom, to be released on June 10 by Bloomsbury.
Additionally, Watt has announced a week-long US tour this July. Watt will play solo on guitar and electric piano, accompanied by friend, album-collaborator and perhaps the finest lead guitarist of his generation, Bernard Butler (formerly of Suede). The audience can expect new songs and vintage gems from the two indie legends.
Hendra is his first solo album since North
Marine Drive thirty-one years ago.
Hendra has earned widespread 4 star reviews from Mojo, Q, Uncut, The Guardian, and many more. Ann Powers of NPR
Music said, "Ben Watt is a master of detail and of quietude... Now, with his first solo album in 31 years, he has returned to highly cultured, intimate song craft."
In Rolling Stone,
James Hunter said, "The songs occupy their own modern spaces with a raging peacefulness."
Last week, SPIN premiered "Trails," the third installment in Watt's "deep folk" mixtape series. "I began the deep folk mixtape series last autumn," says Watt. "It was a cold November Sunday. I was in the studio fiddling with my old rotary Rane 2016 mixer and suddenly wondered what it would sound like mixing folk music through it as opposed to disco... It reflects the mood I am in at the moment. Some might see it as a strange fork in the road after Buzzin' Fly, but everything for me has always been about finding a truthful and vivid point of connection with an audience — whether on dance floors or in folk clubs. Words, beats and notes — it's all we have. It's just a question of playing them in what feels like the right order at the right time, and at the moment, this and my new album Hendra just feels right."
Watt was also featured in BlackBook Magazine, who said "Watt taps the jazz and avant-garde influences of his youth (Bill Evans, Robert Wyatt, Eno), and trades the grooves for piercing meditations of the visceral vagaries of our rather indiscriminate human existence."
On June 10th at PowerHouse
Arena in Brooklyn and June 14th at Book Soup in Los Angeles, Ben Watt will participate in an audience Q&A and read from his much-anticipated second book Romany and Tom. To be published by Bloomsbury on June 10th, the book has been called "poignant, life-affirming work" by the Financial Times and "a major achievement to rival any of Watt's recordings" by The Guardian.
US Tour Dates:
6/10/14: Brooklyn, NY - PowerHouse
Arena - Reading + Q&A
6/11/14: New York, NY - Joe's Pub
6/12/14: New York, NY - Joe's Pub
6/13/14: Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
6/14/14: Los Angeles, CA - Book Soup - Reading + Q&A
7/15/14: Philadelphia, PA - Tin Angel
7/16/14: Vienna, VA - Jammin Java
7/17/14: Toronto, ON - The Drake
7/18/14: Chicago, IL - Old Town School Of Music
7/19/14: Minneapolis, MN - Bryant Lake Bowl
7/21/14: Seattle, WA - Columbia City Theater
7/22/14: San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
Hendra Purchase Links:
iTunes - https://smarturl.it/HendraiTunes
iTunes
Deluxe - https://smarturl.it/HendraDeluxeiTunes
Amazon CD - https://smarturl.it/HendraCD
Amazon
Deluxe CD - https://smarturl.it/HendraDeluxe
Romany and Tom Purchase Links:
Amazon - https://amzn.to/1rcKqRI
Twitter: twitter.com/ben_watt
Facebook: www.facebook.com/benwattmusic
Website: benwatt.com
