Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin’ Stones Announce New Album

Roaring and rocking, this US outfit have a new album ready for release…

South Carolinian-born Hannah Wicklund will release her third album “Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin’ Stones” on Strawberry Moon Records in the UK on Friday 13th September 2019. The album was produced by Sadler Vaden, guitarist for Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and received rave review when it was released in the US last year.

The album dovetails her nationwide UK Roadstars tour with Piston and Gorilla Riot in October 2019.

A full list of dates, venues and dates can be found below. 

The 10-track self-released album was recorded in Nashville, TN and is a fresh take on Wicklund’s musical influences drawn from ’60s, ’70s and ’80s guitar-driven rock. “Once we started writing some songs, I saw that she had a real, raw talent,” says Producer Vaden. “I was inspired to work with her by her love of classic rock music and blues. I wanted to honour that in making this album, but also add a little modern edge to it.”

On her latest self-titled album, Wicklund taps into the fury of loneliness (Ghost). She resurrects spectres of Hendrix and Joplin (Looking Glass) as well as power ballad intensity (Strawberry Moon). Then, just as she’s supercharged you with about as much raw energy as you can channel, she lets you down gently with the acoustic intimacy of Shadow Boxes, but even here, her singing achieves an intensity that most artists can only dream of matching. Her music stands on a bedrock of razor-edged, old-school rock ’n’ roll reanimated by a new generation’s urgency.

You can watch the official music video for ‘Shadowboxes and Porcelain Faces’ here: http://bit.ly/2Xp2ZaY

That impression is doubly emphasised in the video for the album’s first single, Bomb Through The Breeze. It’s a hurricane of swirling colour interspersed with spare shots of Wicklund and her band in action, with black bunnies and slithering snakes adding an eerie visual complement.

Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin’ Stones are fronted by a 22-year-old powerhouse guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. The South Carolina-born, Nashville-based artist who formed the band as an eight-year-old, has developed a powerful and sublime synthesis of guitar skills and makes it clear that the future is hers for the taking. On her most recent, third self-titled album, Hannah Wicklund and the Steppin’ Stones, Hannah has performed over 2,500 shows including festival appearances. Here, she digs in deep, hits hard, and crushes it. Her latest albumis an aural kaleidoscope of blazing guitars and searing vocals, that establishes Wicklund as a triple-threat player, singer and writer in the same vein as Susan Tedeschi and the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.

A special guest on Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive At Sea Mediterranean Cruise in August, the Planet Rock Roadstars tour in October will be Hannah’s first major co-headline tour. The future’s looking bright for Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin’ Stones.

Pete Sargeant