When: 7.30pm on Sunday 12 March 2023
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

PLEASE NOTE: This show is sadly cancelled, with refunds available from the point of purchase. Here’s a message from Honey Harper:

‘Hey y’all, we are so sad to announce that unfortunately we will have to cancel our upcoming European and U.K. tours.
We have tried really hard to find a way to make it work but the reality is that, due to the current climate of the world and the music industry, touring is not financially viable for us right now, even as a solo act. We are so grateful and appreciative of everyone who bought tickets and have supported us on both Starmaker and HH&TIF and we hope to make it up to you as soon as it’s possible.
All our love and gratitude,
Will & Alana (Honey & Bambi)’

We’re delighted to be bringing Honey Harper to Manchester!

Within the first few moments of their self-titled new album, Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky deliver a dashed-off statement on the trappings of country music and their desire for transcendence: ‘I’m sick and tired of three chords and the truth/I think I’m ready for some computer blues.’ In keeping with the album’s kaleidoscopic references — the Bee Gees, Frank Ocean, Greek mythology, sci-fi futurism — that lyric evolved from an in-studio discussion of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard and his theory of simulation.

The follow-up to their 2020 full-length debut Starmaker — a critically lauded album that earned comparisons to both Gram Parsons and Brian Eno — Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky emerged from a deliberate revamping of the band’s creative approach. ‘Instead of taking two years [as was done with Starmaker], we took two weeks and cut everything to tape,’ says frontman William Fussell. ‘We did every song in three takes and then picked the best one; the idea was to take advantage of the spontaneity that makes Americana unique, and create without any pressure and with almost no rules.’

Produced by Fussell and co-founder Alana Pagnutti and mixed by Joel Ford (Ford & Lopatin, Yes/And), Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky features the premiere of The Infinite Sky, a stacked backing band consisting of longtime bassist and contributing writer Mick Mayer, pianist John Carroll Kirby (Solange, Steve Lacy), Spoon keyboardist Alex Fischel, guitarist Jackson MacIntosh (Drugdealer, Jessica Pratt), pedal-steel player Connor Gallaher (Black Lips, Calexico), and TOPS drummer Riley Fleck.

Informed by a vast range of influences (everyone from George Jones to David Bowie to Kanye West), the record mines decades of musical history and places the most time-worn touchstones in unexpected new contexts. A postmodernist pastiche befitting of a band praised by Pitchfork for its ‘celestial twang that owes as much to Spiritualized as it does to Merle Haggard,’ the album represents a seamless merging of Fussell and Pagnutti’s distinct artistic paths. Fussell, the son of an Elvis impersonator, was born in a small Georgia town and spent his adolescence playing in punk bands and singing in church choirs. In 2013, he met and fell in love with Pagnutti, a Toronto native who was then living in New York City, working on a book about the radio-works of Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage.

Despite the high level of conceptualisation that went into its creation, the record embodies an irresistibly loose and groove-heavy sound that hits with an immediate impact. While Starmaker was touted as ‘country music for people who don’t like country music,’ Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky is ‘country music for everyone’.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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