The Wandering Hearts – Summer shows start this week, including London’s LaFayette on 1 June

British trio The Wandering Hearts will be playing a string of UK headline shows and festivals in the Summer, including London’s LaFayette‘s on Saturday 1st June.  They’ll also support legendary The Zombies in Bristol and London next week.

Full dates:

Friday 31 May – O2 Academy, Oxford

Their recently released new album ‘Mother’ was produced by Steve Milbourne. Their Chrysalis Records debut is a handcrafted patchwork of folk-style storytelling, pop hooks and rock energy threaded together by their luminous signature harmonies. You could think of it as a long-lost seventies album originally made in Laurel Canyon and dusted off in some vintage London record store 50 years later.

Motherhood changes everything. Little moments assume a much greater significance, and every memory holds the potential to last forever. Responsibilities expand, yet joy does as well. The Wandering Hearts intimately explore this maternal transformation on their aptly titled third full-length offering ‘Mother’. The band, Tara Wilcox [vocals], A.J. Dean [vocals, acoustic guitar] and Francesca ‘Chess’ Whiffin [vocals, mandolin], chronicle this season of growth and change across eleven tracks.

“I was pregnant when we started making the record, and Tara was pregnant when we finished it,” notes Chess. “During the process, we really found ourselves as a band. Motherhood has helped us grow and find meaning. It brought our writing and performing to a different level.”

The group worked out of Chess’s home studio in Darlington, drawing on everything from folk to rock. Surrounded by guitars, a vintage piano and classic equipment, the music gestated in a room affectionately dubbed, “The Music Womb.” A.J. goes on, “This album started as a folk EP and grew into something entirely different.  It has elements of folk, rock, blues, pop and more with our voices tying it all together. We were really just making an album for us. We think the result is the best music we’ve ever made.”

Earlier releases had brandished a bit of a subtle pop sheen. With ’Mother’, The Wandering Hearts peeled back this layer, sanded it down and stripped the sound to its bare essentials—captivating lyrics, organic instrumentation, and, as always, starkly powerful harmonies. In doing so, they realised their vision at its purest and most powerful. On ‘About America’, bright acoustic guitar and tambourine offset the heavy weight of an intense story given life by breathy harmonies. Echoes of a soft vocal line ripple over a steady beat on ‘Still Waters’, piano bookending the vulnerable refrain, “My body’s made up, but my mind is a mess, so hard to focus when I feel like this.”

Crystalline harmonies transmit a tender message uplifted even higher by organ on ‘Letter To Myself’. As electric guitar wails, ‘Hold Your Tongue’ pierces passive-aggressive “compliments” with sharp lyrics and angular vocal melodies. Album highlight ‘Not Misunderstood,’ broods and builds, warning of a looming emotional storm. ‘What Fools Believe’ concludes on a breezy chant laced with whistling and lithe strumming. “It’s an anthem to everyone to keep on going—even if life is hard,” A.J. notes. In the end, motherhood has ultimately enabled The Wandering Hearts to be themselves. “The album has all of the elements of who we are, but we’ve landed in a place that feels like us,” reflects Chess.

1. About America                                                           7. Dance Again

2. Still Waters                                                                 8. Not Misunderstood

3. Tired                                                                           9. River To Cry

4. Letter To Myself                                                         10. Will You Love Me

5. Hold Your Tongue                                                      11. What Fools Believe

6. Waiting