In the midst of overwhelming critical praise for his classic country-influenced debut album ‘Mr Jukebox’ - out now on Jack White's Third Man Records (stream/download here) - Nashville singer-songwriter Joshua Hedley has confirmed a run of UK & European headline dates in September 2018, including an appearance at The Long Road festival alongside Lee Ann Womack, The Shires & Aaron Watson - limited tickets for all shows on sale now:
Aug 31 - Oslo, Norway - Cafe Mono
Sep 1 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
Monday 3 September 2018 - The Old Blue Last, London (38 Great Eastern St Shoreditch EC2A 3ES) £11.50 Ticketmaster UK | Event
Tuesday 4 September 2018 - The Crofters Rights, Bristol (Website; Facebook ,117-119 Stokes Croft BS1 3RW)
Thursday 6 September 2018 - Admiral Bar, Glasgow (The Hold, 72a Waterloo Street G2 7DA)
Friday 7 September 2018 - Sage 2, Gateshead (St Mary's Square, Gateshead Quays NE8 2JR) £12.50 Event
Sunday 9 September 2018 - The Long Road Festival, Lutterworth See BLOG POST Tickets from Ticketmaster UK and www.thelongroad.com/tickets/.
Hedley’s album was highlighted among the "best of 2018 so far" by Bob Harris on BBC R2 and described by The Times as a "perfect pastiche of Glen Campbell, George Jones and other makers of countrypolitan smoothness". Check out the video for lead single 'Mr Jukebox' here:
ABOUT JOSHUA HEDLEY:
With the release of his highly anticipated debut album Mr. Jukebox via Third Man
Records, Joshua Hedley will embrace the role he was born to play: this
generation’s classic country champion.
An accomplished fiddle player, Hedley felt inexplicably drawn toward the instrument as a child. He got his hands on his own fiddle at age 8, and by 12, he was playing with more experienced local middle-aged pickers. At 19, he moved from his native Florida to Nashville, where he became an in-demand sideman at legendary downtown bar Robert’s Western World among others, and ultimately, a well-respected frontman. Armed with an easy croon and prodigious fiddle playing, he became known as the ‘Mayor of Lower Broadway’. He hit the road to perform with artists including Jonny Fritz, Justin Townes Earle, and more, while the 2015 documentary Heartworn Highways Revisited featured Hedley prominently.
Hedley didn’t start writing his own songs until he was about 28 years-old. So on the backend of his 20s, he finally started writing, eventually unlocking a flood of clarity and creativity. The heartbreaking, distilled, defiantly classic country that poured out of him became ‘Mr. Jukebox’, a salve and beacon for 60s honky-tonk devotees everywhere.
Album opener “Counting All My Tears” carves out the collection’s gloriously tear-jerking territory from the jump. As “oooooohhhs” and “aaaaahhhs” serve as spine-tingling harmonies - a classic-country flourish carried throughout ‘Mr. Jukebox’ - lonely piano is joined by a familiar cast including steel and of course, fiddle. “Mr. Jukebox” is a swinging nod to those beloved machines––both inanimate and breathing––that dependably play a lot of songs for a little money. It’s impossible to listen to the tune and not smile thinking of Hedley’s years logged in cover bands on Nashville’s Lower Broad. Lush strings kick off the sauntering “Weird Thought Thinker,” which features harmonies that evoke both bass walkdowns and angels. An ace fiddle intro opens “Let Them Talk,” a carefree ode to being in love and not worrying about who knows it. “Let’s Take a Vacation” pleads for one last lovers’ getaway to try to remember what’s been lost. Hedley delivers a masterful recitation over crying steel, soft harmonies, and rich supporting strings. He penned shuffling “These Walls” about FooBar, a beloved East Nashville dive Hedley lived near before it shut down.
“This Time” paints a vivid picture of leaving that’s both proud and blue. Simple and brilliant, “I Never Shed a Tear” sounds like a standard, but just like all but one track on ‘Mr. Jukebox’, it’s a Hedley original. “You’re trying to say as much as you can in as few words as possible,” he says. “Trying to convey an emotion to make people feel their own emotions.” Hedley’s ability to capture feelings is on spellbinding display in album standout “Don’t Waste Your Tears,” a soaring, gut-punching vocal performance. The final track is the only cover: a goosebumps-inducing version of “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Hedley picked the song to honor his dad, who passed away about three years ago without seeing the record deal, glowing press, and peer admiration Hedley’s earned. “We spent a lot of Christmases at Disney World,” he says. “When I was searching for a cover song, it dawned on me that my dad didn’t get to see any of this happen, but he always wanted it.”
When asked what he hopes listeners get out of ‘Mr. Jukebox’, Hedley doesn’t hesitate. “I just want people to remember they have feelings, and that they’re valid,” he says. “Not everything is Coors Light and tailgates. There are other aspects of life that aren’t so great that people experience. They’re part of life, part of what shapes people. And that’s worth noting.”
An accomplished fiddle player, Hedley felt inexplicably drawn toward the instrument as a child. He got his hands on his own fiddle at age 8, and by 12, he was playing with more experienced local middle-aged pickers. At 19, he moved from his native Florida to Nashville, where he became an in-demand sideman at legendary downtown bar Robert’s Western World among others, and ultimately, a well-respected frontman. Armed with an easy croon and prodigious fiddle playing, he became known as the ‘Mayor of Lower Broadway’. He hit the road to perform with artists including Jonny Fritz, Justin Townes Earle, and more, while the 2015 documentary Heartworn Highways Revisited featured Hedley prominently.
Hedley didn’t start writing his own songs until he was about 28 years-old. So on the backend of his 20s, he finally started writing, eventually unlocking a flood of clarity and creativity. The heartbreaking, distilled, defiantly classic country that poured out of him became ‘Mr. Jukebox’, a salve and beacon for 60s honky-tonk devotees everywhere.
Album opener “Counting All My Tears” carves out the collection’s gloriously tear-jerking territory from the jump. As “oooooohhhs” and “aaaaahhhs” serve as spine-tingling harmonies - a classic-country flourish carried throughout ‘Mr. Jukebox’ - lonely piano is joined by a familiar cast including steel and of course, fiddle. “Mr. Jukebox” is a swinging nod to those beloved machines––both inanimate and breathing––that dependably play a lot of songs for a little money. It’s impossible to listen to the tune and not smile thinking of Hedley’s years logged in cover bands on Nashville’s Lower Broad. Lush strings kick off the sauntering “Weird Thought Thinker,” which features harmonies that evoke both bass walkdowns and angels. An ace fiddle intro opens “Let Them Talk,” a carefree ode to being in love and not worrying about who knows it. “Let’s Take a Vacation” pleads for one last lovers’ getaway to try to remember what’s been lost. Hedley delivers a masterful recitation over crying steel, soft harmonies, and rich supporting strings. He penned shuffling “These Walls” about FooBar, a beloved East Nashville dive Hedley lived near before it shut down.
“This Time” paints a vivid picture of leaving that’s both proud and blue. Simple and brilliant, “I Never Shed a Tear” sounds like a standard, but just like all but one track on ‘Mr. Jukebox’, it’s a Hedley original. “You’re trying to say as much as you can in as few words as possible,” he says. “Trying to convey an emotion to make people feel their own emotions.” Hedley’s ability to capture feelings is on spellbinding display in album standout “Don’t Waste Your Tears,” a soaring, gut-punching vocal performance. The final track is the only cover: a goosebumps-inducing version of “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Hedley picked the song to honor his dad, who passed away about three years ago without seeing the record deal, glowing press, and peer admiration Hedley’s earned. “We spent a lot of Christmases at Disney World,” he says. “When I was searching for a cover song, it dawned on me that my dad didn’t get to see any of this happen, but he always wanted it.”
When asked what he hopes listeners get out of ‘Mr. Jukebox’, Hedley doesn’t hesitate. “I just want people to remember they have feelings, and that they’re valid,” he says. “Not everything is Coors Light and tailgates. There are other aspects of life that aren’t so great that people experience. They’re part of life, part of what shapes people. And that’s worth noting.”
Related Blog Post (March 2018):
Joshua Hedley’s Album MR. JUKEBOX out April 20, Featured Cover Artist in April’s Country Music People
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