Rachel Harrington announces July UK tour, with Netherlands & UK dates to follow in the autumn, album 'Hush the Wild Horses' (out Sept 6)

Widely acclaimed Pacific Northwest-based Americana singer-songwriter Rachel Harrington announces July UK tour, including appearances at the Maverick Festival, SummerTyne Americana and Beer and Bluegrass, with further dates to follow in the Netherlands from late September and a short UK return run from mid October, in support of eagerly anticipated new album Hush the Wild Horses, her first album proper in over 7 years, which is due for release on September 6

Rachel Harrington

Hush the Wild Horses

Format: CD & DL

Label: Skinny Dennis Records

Cat. No. SKD008

Release Date: September 6 2019

Lloyd Maines (Dixie Chicks, Richard Buckner): pedal steel, slide

Eamon McLoughlin (Emmylou, R. Crowell): fiddle

Laura Veirs: harmonies

Shelley Short (Neko Case): harmonies

Ji Tanzer: drums

Jesse Emerson & Allen Hunter: bass

Casey Neill, producer, electric guitar

John Morgan Askew (Laura Gibson, R. Fontaine): recording, mixing

Jon Neufeld: archtop guitar, mastering

Rachel Harrington: lead vocal, acoustic guitar

All songs written by Rachel Harrington except: "Susanna," by Rachel Harrington and Mandolin Hooper

Homesteading. That’s what Rachel Harrington’s been up to since music took a backseat to horses, health, and family life back home. Once touted by Maverick magazine as “the hardest working woman in Americana” due to her relentless touring schedule, Harrington took a sabbatical to recharge.

“I was physically exhausted and decided to take a break from touring. But once I stopped, I didn’t feel any better.”

Obamacare gave the musician reduced-cost healthcare – which was how she learned she’d been severely anaemic for years without knowing it, and had several underlying medical issues. Those took a couple of years to trouble-shoot and cure, but were eventually resolved and she finally began to regain her health and energy. She started playing guitar again. And she rescued two horses that were headed to slaughter. One of them nearly feral, she spent months working with trainers and vets on rehab.

“Being with horses again felt good and grounding. Mud in your boots every day. Outside in the weather, in the field, every morning and every evening. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a pain in the butt. But there’s nothing better for my soul than nature and animals. I started playing a lot of guitar around that time and I knew horses would be all over my next album.”

Then, Rachel’s grandmother fell ill. The women in the family came together to sit vigil at the matriarch’s dying bed. When not at the hospital, Harrington spent those nights in her grandmother’s now empty home, where Rachel slept in the bed of her deceased uncle. A Vietnam vet, he’d committed suicide after returning from the war.

“Those nights I spent in his bed, I couldn’t help but think of him. And then in my grandmother’s attic, after she died, we found a shoebox full of letters. They were all the letters he’d gotten while in the service. I started doing a lot of research about Vietnam and was stricken by how war affects us all.”The resulting song is ‘Mekong Delta’.

War is a recurrent theme on this album. Harrington has also penned a deeply personal song – ‘The Barn’ – for her mother, about her mother’s long ago high school love who was killed in service during Vietnam. Too, the rockabilly-styled ‘Drop Zone’ takes its public domain lyrics from Army marching cadences.

Another theme is addiction. Sober from 1999 to 2008, Harrington began drinking again when she started touring as a professional musician. After a lengthy struggle of stops and starts, Rachel quit for good in March 2018.

“That’s when I started writing again in earnest.”

And personal her writing has become. ‘Gave It All Away’ is about a musician friend who overdosed. ‘Save Yourself’ is about her meth-addicted homeless brother. ‘Child of God’ is about the sexual assault she experienced at the age of eight.

The album isn’t all briars though. Rachel’s fallen in love with a former soldier. There are several love songs about their romance.

Too, the record has a tribute to the late Guy Clark, one of Harrington’s songwriting heroes. That song, ‘Susanna’, takes its name from Clark’s wife, who preceded him in death by a few years.

Hush the Wild Horses, Rachel’s 5th full-length studio album, releases September 2019. Its themes are farmed from the last seven years at home in Oregon. Family stories, from horses to Graceland, from Vietnam to the sweet hereafter, from wagon ruts to the interstate, everything dusted with the American West.

Recorded in Portland, Oregon, Nashville and Austin, the album features guest musicians who were hand-picked for their particular sounds. Pedal steel legend Lloyd Maines (father of Dixie Chicks’ lead singer Natalie Maines) lends his twang and mood. Fiddle is provided by Grand Ole Opry staff fiddler Eamon McLoughlin (Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell), while Laura Veirs and Shelley Short (Neko Case) provide spot-on harmony vocals.

Produced by Portland veteran musician Casey Neill (Casey Neill and The Norway Rats), the album was recorded at Scenic Burrows studio with engineer John Morgan Askew (Richmond Fontaine, The Delines, Laura Gibson).

Rachel Harrington · July UK & September-October Netherlands & UK 2019 Tour

JULY

Thu 4 July 2019 - The Forge @ The Anvil, Basingstoke (Website; Churchill Way, RG21 7QR)                                  

Fri 5 July 2019 - Royal & Derngate, Northampton (19-21 Guildhall Road, NN1 1DP)

Sat 6 July 2019 - Maverick Festival 2019, Easton, Suffolk

Sun 7 July 2019 - Maverick Festival 2019, Gospel Brunch Easton

Sun 7 July 2019 - Captain Fawcett’s Emporium, King’s Lynn

Wed 10 July 2019 - Biddulph Town Hall, Biddulph, Staffordshire ST8 6AR

Fri 12 July 2019 - The Monk’s Walk, Beverley (Highgate, East Yorkshire HU17 0DN) Event £11                                      

Sun 14 July 2019 - The Greystones, Sheffield (Greystones Road, Sheffield, S11 7BS)

Tue 16 July 2019 - Leith Folk Club, Victoria Park House Hotel, Edinburgh

Thu 18 July 2019 - Eden Court Theatre, Inverness (Eden Court, Bishop's Road, IV3 5SA)                                    

Sat 20 July 2019 - Gateshead SummerTyne Americana Festival 2019, River Cruise (5:20pm) with Massy Ferguson

Sun 21 July 2019 - Gateshead SummerTyne Americana Festival 2019, Concourse Stage (Noon) with Massy Ferguson

Mon 22 July 2019 - Kitchen Garden Café, Birmingham (17 York Road, Kings Heath, B14 7SA)                                 

Wed 24 July 2019 - The Square & Compass, Worth Matravers, nr. Swanage

Thu 25 July 2019 - The Firkin Shed, Bluegrass Discovery, Bournemouth

Fri 26 July 2019 - Beer and Bluegrass 2019, Poole

Sat 27 July 2019 - Beer and Bluegrass 2019, Poole

28 July 2019 - Green Note, London (106 Parkway, London NW1 7AN)                             

SEPTEMBER

Sun 29 September 2019 - The Podium Café, Steendam, NL                                

Mon 30 September 2019 - De Parel van Zuilen, Utrecht NL                                     

OCTOBER

Wed 2 October 2019 - Roots in 't Groen / Heerenhuys 23, Geldrop, NL                                   

Thu 3 October 2019 - Tuney Thursday / De Bunker, Gemert, NL                                    

Sun 6 October 2019 - Café Westerdok, Amsterdam                                   

Tue 8 October 2019 - Café Trianon, Nijmegen, NL                                

Sat 12 October 2019 - Private House Concert, Turner’s Hill, W. Sussex                 

Sun 13 October 2019 - The Running Horse, Nottingham (16 Alfreton Road, NG7 3NG)                                 

Sat 19 October 2019 - Seven Arts, Leeds (31A Harrogate Rd, LS7 3PD)   

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PRAISE FOR RACHEL HARRINGTON

The Bootlegger’s Daughter (2007)

“I am absolutely enchanted with this record! A brilliant debut.” Bob Harris

“This self-assured debut is almost a primer in Americana.” Mojo

“There is an innocence, a willingness, an awkwardness and an honesty that shines through…her music inhabits that fertile space between folk, bluegrass and country.” The Irish Times

City Of Refuge (2008)

“…an inspiringly original album.” Q (4 stars)

“A classic Americana album.” Maverick (4 stars)

“The Oregonian's second album is stuffed with characters from the old West, singing about hard times and old-time religion. Beguiling.” Mojo (4 stars)

Celilo Falls (2011)

“...an album that reaches deep into the soul” Country Music People (4 Stars)

“…this is fine, haunted, gothic Americana.” Daily Mirror (4 Stars)

 “...an album of incredible maturity” R2 (4 Stars)

“A compelling blend of twang and swing drawn from bluegrass and country & western stylings infuse the lyrical narratives with the appropriate ramshackle, hardscrabble, Wild West atmosphere.” Songlines (4 Stars)