Jake Bugg Returns With ‘Never Can Tell’ & 2027 Tour
By Jake Bugg
Returns With Seventh Studio Album Alamo
Out November 13th on Thirty Tigers
First Track ‘Never Can Tell’ Out Now
Listen HERE // Watch HERE
2027 UK & EU Solo Tour Announced
Including Date at London’s Union Chapel on Friday February 26th
Headlines Musicians Corner in Centennial Park on September 18th as Part of Americana Fest
Jake Bugg is back! The rock troubadour returns with his seventh album Alamo, and first on Thirty Tigers, on November 13th. Alongside the announcement Jake has also released the album’s first taste ‘Never Can Tell’ and details of a 2027 UK and EU solo tour, including a show at London’s Union Chapel on Friday February 26th. Listen to ‘Never Can Tell’ HERE & watch the lyric video HERE.
Produced by multi-grammy winning duo of longtime friend and producer Jimmy Hogarth (Anohni, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini) and Steve McKewan (Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood, Eminem), Alamo sees Jake return to his folk leaning roots – raw, real and unguarded. Now 32, the album is an 11 track testament to his matured craft as a songwriter and an open-hearted revelation of his journey as a man through love and loneliness and back again. It’s an album that rolls along with pure but lush and authentic country music arrangements that get straight to the heart of the matter with nothing to hide behind.
There’s a battle-born that runs through Alamo. The finger pickin’ good Dylan and Cohen-inspired rootsy roadsong of ‘Day By Day’ as Bugg offers that “I’d like to make a difference, I’d like to make some sense, but everything is closing in” – an ode to just waking up every day and trying to leave the world a better place than you found it, despite what it throws in your face. On the tender and yearning opener ‘When The Night’ Jake pines “I find myself wishing I was someone else,” asking the album’s core question, as Bugg puts it, of “what does isolation really feel like and lead you to do?” The album’s title-track sees Jake navigate the pains of being in a relationship that’s crumbling around you and the poignant ‘Cloud In The Sky’ is Jake at his most open, untangling ghosts from the past.
“After all the years of touring and making records, it just felt like the right time to look inward. The last couple of years have been tough for me and I’ve had a lot of struggles. I’m trying to navigate those and figure out where they stem from,” Jake says of the record. “‘Alamo’ was only going to work if I was going to be honest and be as vulnerable as possible. I’ve always had a lot of defenses and barriers around me. I thought it was time to bring those down.”
The album’s first cut comes in the form of the infectious, country tinged ‘Never Can Tell’. A rollicking, guitar driven anthem about navigating the friendships that find their way to you after finding success, the track is Jake at his direct and honest best. “It’s really fucking hard to know who to trust in this day and age, especially growing up how I did and having to be vigilant and observant of the people around you,” Jake said of the track. “The song is about that. Life throws so many parallels at you and it’s hard to know which way to go. People tell you different things and you’ve just got to go with what your gut tells you.”
Jake has also announced a stripped back and intimate solo tour across the UK and EU in 2027. Kicking off at the Albert Hall in Manchester on Saturday February 6th, the 10 date UK and IRE leg will see Jake play a hometown date at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall and culminates with a show at London’s Union Chapel on Friday February 26th. Pre-sale for tickets begin Friday September 4th at 10am BST with general sale on Friday September 11th at 10am BST. Jake will also be heading to Nashville to headline Musicians Corner in Centennial Park on September 18th as part of Americana Fest. For more head info HERE.
Jake Bugg plays the following UK dates:
February
Sat 6th Albert Hall. Manchester
Tue 9th 3Olympia, Dublin
Thu 11th The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
Sun 14th Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
Wed 17th Glasshouse, Gateshead
Thu 18th Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield
Sat 20th Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool
Sun 21st Bristol Beacon, Bristol
Tue 23rd Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
Fri 26th Union Chapel, London
After nearly 15 years of dominating the charts and smashing festivals while standing up outside of trends with his unique and authentic singer-songwriter approach, he’s done a lot of growing since his first album went platinum three times and hit Number One in the UK. Just as with his debut, the album artwork was shot by the legendary Kevin Westenberg. Sure, Jake’s older, wiser, and comfortably in Memphis in this picture, but it’s another pure image with no trickery. What you see is what you get: a man still here to take on the world.