Nels Andrews is to grace the UK shores again accompanied by guitarist Jonathan Goldberger as he kicks-off his UK tour at The Admiral Bar in Glasgow on 20th May with further dates taking in Derbyshire, Plymouth, London and more (dates below).
When Nels visited last year Simon interviewed him for Folk Radio UK and spoke to him about his third album Scrimshaw which takes its name from the traditional folk art of carving or incising intricate designs on whalebone or whale ivory. Simon described Scrimshaw as “a wonderful, poetic, lyrical record delivered with warmth and intimacy, and written with a wide eyed wonder that creates impressionistic fables.” Nels also explained to him the story behind the title:
I’d taken some time off since my last record (Off Track Betting, 2008) to stay home with Otis. I worked hard writing songs at night while he slept, but for the first time in a long while I wasn’t out on the road as much.
I became a little obsessed with cetaceans, casually starting at the Natural History museum, with its giant blue whale hanging from the ceiling, moving on to Moby Dick, then to reading captains’ memoirs from the era, and finally going on actual whale watching trips (not to mention keeping a bedside maritime dictionary). I’d learned that the guys who worked on the whaling boats had long bouts of downtime in between the actual whaling, where they wrote, carved, and mythologized the hunt. One way to do this was with “scrimshaw”. To me, Scrimshaw means a craft of the off-hours, marking time while documenting a journey.
It’s a great pleasure to have him back on these shores along with Jonathan Goldberger has also worked with artists ranging from Anais Mitchell, Rodriguez (from the much-heralded documentary, Sugar Man), Todd Sickafoose and Leni Stern. The tour dates are below.
Tour Dates
May
20 – Glasgow, The Admiral Bar
21 – Inverness, Ig:LU
23 – Belper, Derbyshire, Belper Rugby Club
24 – High Wycombe, Private House Concert
25 – London, Green Note
28 – Plymouth, The B-Bar
29 – Shrewsbury, Henry Tudor House
30 – Newport, Pembs. Llys Meddig Restaurant
31 – Nottingham, The Guitar Bar at Hotel Deux
June
01 – Saltaire, nr. Shipley, West Yorks. Thee Live Room @ Caroline Social Club
02 – Formby, Grateful Fred’s at The Cafe D’Art