Withered Hand - Ten Years

On Ten Years, Dan Willson, aka Withered Hand, celebrates the tenth anniversary of his debut long player, Good News, by re-working four of the album’s finest tunes. They were handed over to Pete Harvey (who was involved in the genesis of the original recordings) to re-arrange, lovely new melancholic string sections were recorded, and Willson re-sang his vocals – effortlessly moving the anti-folk classics towards anti-chamber pop.

Dubbed "the Springsteen of self-deprecation", with his ragged tenor and often lo-fi, acoustic-based sound, Willson has come to represent a certain standard in the UK DIY scene, and was a part of the Fife-based Fence Collective with acts like King Creosote and James Yorkston.

Based in Edinburgh, and a veteran of multiple bands in late-'90s and early-2000s, Willson began his solo career after receiving an acoustic guitar from his wife as a 30th birthday gift. Migrating slowly from bandmate to solo artist, he began singing and writing his own loose, jangly songs, eventually releasing his debut EP, Religious Songs, under the moniker Withered Hand. Finding immediate success with the new format, Willson released a second EP in 2009 before teaming up with legendary American producer Kramer to make his first full-length album, Good News, in 2010.

Two more Withered Hand EPs appeared in 2012 before Willson returned to the studio to record his follow-up LP. His second full-length, New Gods, was released in early 2014 by Fortuna Pop and Slumberland. The record was produced by Tony Doogan (Mountain Goats, Belle and Sebastian) and features help from Black Tambourine's Pam Berry, Eugene Kelly of the Vaselines, and members of Belle and Sebastian and Frightened Rabbit.

Ten Years has been co-released by London-based DIY labels Where It's At Is Where You Are and Fika Recordings.

"Willson is a one-man Fleet Foxes with a voice that, one moment, sounds on the brink of collapse; the next, is filled with humour, emotion and self-knowledge" - The Herald

"At times on this impressive debut Dan Willson’s alter ego attains the celestial lustre of that holy grail of lapsed evangelical folk nouveau, the first Palace Brothers album." - MOJO

"The UK’s best lyricist" - King Creosote

TRACKLIST:

1. I Am Nothing

2. No Cigarettes

3. New Dawn

4. Religious Songs

10" EP contains download card