Josh T. Pearson

Has Shared A Session Version Of ‘Straight At Me’

JOSH T. PEARSON has shared a new session version of ‘Straight At Me’ ahead of the release of The Straight Hits!, the follow up to his acclaimed debut, 2011’s Last Of The Country Gentlemen.

“Hang my reputation out to dry, I don’t care at all. Hand in my deadly weapons from the warpath my life’s been on”

Watch ‘Straight At Me’ – recorded at Modern Electric Sound Recorders studio in Dallas, Texas – from The Texas Gentlemen Sessions, directed by Erica Silverman.

Josh T. Pearson is currently in the UK for a series of Rough Trade in-stores and signings, starting on release date, Friday 13 April at Rough Trade West and Rough Trade East, before travelling to the shops in Bristol and Nottingham. JOSH T. PEARSON (SOLO)

13 Apr – UK, London Rough Trade West instore + signing, from 2pm
13 Apr – UK, London Rough Trade East instore + signing, from 7pm
14 Apr – UK, Bristol Rough Trade instore + signing, from 6.30pm
15 Apr – UK, Nottingham Rough Trade instore + signing, from 5.30pm

Josh T. Pearson and his band, which features Lift To Experience drummer Andy Young, will then return to the UK and take to the road with a tour across Europe in May and June, with the final date of the UK tour at London’s Islington Assembly Hall on 22 May. Support is from Erika Wennerstrom (from Heartless Bastards), who Josh will be touring through the US with on a solo tour starting 25 April – full details below. Later in the summer, Jos T. Pearson and his band will appear at Sea Change and End of the Road festivals. Pearson recently returned from SXSW in Texas, where Rolling Stone’s David Fricke declared Josh T. Pearson one of the Best Artists at the Texas Throwdown.

The Straight Hits! began as a mere creative exercise – each song had to follow certain parameters, listed below as The Five Pillars – and it was one that has given Pearson the freedom to write a lighter, more “straight” album, described by Uncut as demonstrating “a sense of well being and a lightness of spirit”. “In the last year,s I learned to dance, take drugs, make love… choose life. I got rid of the beard, cut my hair and started wearing colour.”

The Straight Hits! features multiple different flavours of country, rock and all points in between, taking in blasts of goofy shit-kicking country-punk (opener ‘Straight To The Top!’), cataclysmic rock’n’roll playing its romantic drama at high-stakes (‘Loved Straight To Hell’, which compresses the elemental power of Pearson’s previous band, Lift To Experience into five and a half minutes of symphonic turmoil); aching folksy mourn (‘Dire Straights Of Love’), and even a bona fide love song, the deliciously profound ache of ‘A Love Song (Set Me Straight)’. Written in three days, the tracks were cut with similar no nonsense focus, in three days with engineer Matt Pence (who made Mute’s 2017 reissue of The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads sound so vivid) at the controls, Lift To Experience drummer Andy Young once again manning the traps, and Daniel Creamer and Scott Lee Jr. of The Texas Gentlemen on keyboards and bass guitar. The recordings were then flown to the UK to be mixed by Ben Hillier.

Josh T. Pearson has freed himself from the mythology that has surrounded him since Lift To Experience’s implosion, his subsequent years in the wilderness travelling throughout Europe and beyond, and the release of his acclaimed debut album. There’s new Josh T. Pearson music in the world, and it’s joyful, giddy life-affirming stuff.

25 April – US, Santa Fe Meow Wolf
26 April – US, Denver Globe Hall
27 April – US, Salt Lake City The State Room
29 April – US, Missoula Top Hat
1 May – US, Portland Doug Fir Loung
2 May – US, Seattle Tractor Tavern
4 May – US, San Francisco The Chapel
5 May – US, Santa Cruz Crepe Place
6 May – US, Petaluma Mystic Theatre
JOSH T. PEARSON BAND LIVE
15 May – UK, Leeds Brudenell Social Club
16 May – UK, Birmingham The Glee Club
18 May – IE, Dublin Whelans
19 May – UK, Glasgow Art School
20 May – UK, Manchester Gorilla
22 May – UK, London Islington Assembly Hall
24 May – FR, Paris La Maroquinerie
26 May – BE, Belgium Rotonde Botanique
27 May – NL, Amsterdam Bitterzoet
28 May – DE, Cologne Gebäude 9
29 May – DE, Hamburg Knust
30 May – DE, Berlin Quasimodo
4 June – SE, Stockholm Kagelbanen
5 June – DK, Copenhagen DR Koncerthuset Studio 3
6 June – NO, Oslo Parkteatret
24-25 Aug – UK, Sea Change Festival
30 Aug-2 Sep – UK, End of the Road festival

JOSH T. PEARSON (SOLO)

13 Apr – UK, London Rough Trade West instore + signing, from 2pm
13 Apr – UK, London Rough Trade East instore + signing, from 7pm
14 Apr – UK, Bristol Rough Trade instore + signing, from 6.30pm
15 Apr – UK, Nottingham Rough Trade instore + signing, from 5.30pm

Tickets are on sale now

The Straight Hits! Tracklisting
Straight To The Top!
Straight At Me
Give It To Me Straight
Straight Laced Come Undone
Damn Straight
Loved Straight To Hell
The Dire Straits Of Love
Whiskey Straight Love
A Love Song (Set Me Straight)
Straight Down Again!

Josh T. Pearson’s The Five Pillars:
1) All songs must have a verse, a chorus and a bridge.
2) The lyrics must run 16 lines or less.
3) They must have the word ‘straight’ in the title.
4) That title must be four words or less.
5) They must submit to the song above all else. (“You do as she tells you, whatever the song tells you,” Pearson explains. “You bend to her, and not her to you.”).

Order The Straight Hits!

Watch the animated video for ‘Straight To The Top!’

Listen to ‘Straight At Me’ (album version)

‘Whiskey Straight Love’ (The Texas Gentlemen Sessions version)

‘Straight At Me’ (The Texas Gentlemen Sessions version)

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