Photo by Jake Dapper
Today, Penny and Sparrow announced their first world tour along with a new single “Need You” from their forthcoming album Olly Olly that will be released on January 21, 2022 via Thirty Tigers. The tour will kick off on March 18 in Birmingham, AL and will make stops across the US before they head to Europe in September. Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 12. Find a full list of tour dates below or at pennyandsparrow.com. Olly Olly is now available for pre-order.
“‘Need You’ is the newest single off our upcoming album Olly Olly and it was born out of two ingredients: dreams about romance & an open letter Florence Pugh wrote about filming Midsommar,” explains Penny and Sparrow. “Her performance was cataclysmic and (like so many grand things) it made us want to make something beautiful. On the surface ‘Need You’ is a nod to cinephiles and folks that are lovesick in the midst of good and bad relationships. Below the surface, ‘Need You’ is a nesting doll of sweet & nightmarish dreams. It gives you good and bad news in equal measure and asks that you not dismiss either one.”
About the forthcoming tour, the band said: “We’ve been building out a tour in secret for a long time and now we finally get to show you! The Olly Olly world tour (yes that’s right, we’re going overseas) is on sale Friday and we want you to come to literally every show. Buy all the tickets cuz it’s go time.”
So far, Penny and Sparrow released three songs from the forthcoming album: “Alabama Haint,” “Gogogo” and “Adeline,” which Atwood Magazine called “Intimate and effervescent… a beautiful show of emotional radiance.”
Olly Olly marks the first time the duo of Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke have worked without an outside producer and recorded songs that completely forgo the use of acoustic instruments. The 12 songs that comprise the album were written during the last year, when the band found their calendar completely empty. The duo found themselves amidst a tumultuous period where Jahnke moved to Waco, TX and became intensely lonely in a new city he could not explore or build a community in, while Baxter was based in Florence, AL where he had just begun therapy for the first time.
“Andy and I talk about the process of making this record like a sort of musical Rumspringa,” Jahnke says. “It was an opportunity to truly become ourselves, to evolve outside of the roles we’d been put in—or put ourselves in—because of the way we’d grown up.”
“The idea of calling out to everyone in hiding to reveal themselves and be free just resonated with us on a fundamental level,” says Baxter about the central theme surrounding the album and its title Olly Olly. “In a sense, that’s what we’re doing with this album.”
Olly Olly follows Penny and Sparrow’s critically acclaimed 6th studio album Finch which debuted at #2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and #4 on the Billboard Vinyl Album Sales Chart, and has since racked up more than 40 million streams. The album was praised by NPR Music, The Associated Press, No Depression, Paste and many more. NPR’s World Cafe called the album “a collection of new songs that showcase the duo’s celestial harmonies, songs with stories that unfold like wild, vivid dreams,” while Atwood Magazine called it a “masterpiece.”
Penny and Sparrow World Tour Dates:
03/18: Birmingham, AL – Saturn *
03/19: Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse *
03/21: Bluffton, SC – Roasting Room *
03/22: Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theater *
03/24: Asheville, NC – Orange Peel *
03/25: Chattanooga, TN – Walker Theater *
03/26: Raleigh, NC – Cat’s Cradle *
03/27: Annapolis, MD – Ram’s Head *
03/29: Washington, DC – Union Stage
03/30: New York, NY – LPR
04/01: Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
04/02: Montreal, QC – Ritz ^
04/03: Toronto, ON – Adelaide Hall ^
04/05: Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark *
04/06: Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall *
04/08: Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center *
04/09: Kansas City, MO – recordBar *
04/10: St. Louis, MO – Old Rock House *
04/12: Louisville, KY – Headliners *
04/13: Cincinnati, OH – Ludlow Garage *
04/21: Florence, AL – Shoals Theater *
04/22: Nashville, TN – Basement East *
04/23: Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theater *
04/28: Houston, TX – Heights Theater *
04/29: Austin, TX – Paramount Theater *
04/30: Dallas, TX – Majestic Theater *
05/10: Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom *
05/11: San Diego, CA – Belly Up *
05/13: Los Angeles, CA – Regent Theater *
05/14: San Francisco, CA – Chapel Theater *
05/17: Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater *
05/18: Seattle, WA – Neumos *
05/20: Salt Lake City, UT – State Room *
05/21: Fort Collins, CO – The Armory *
05/22: Denver, CO – Gothic Theater
09/07: London, UK – Nell’s
09/08: Manchester, UK – Night & Day
09/09: Dublin, IE – Academy 2
09/10: Glasgow, UK – Attic Bar
09/14: Paris, FR – Les Estoiles
09/15: Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
09/16: Cologne, DE – Theater der Wohngemeinschaft
09/17: Hamburg, DE – Haekken
09/19: Stockholm, SE – Nalen Klubb
09/21: Oslo, NO – Krøsset
09/22: Berlin, DE – Privetclub
09/23: Prague, CZ – Cafe V Lese
09/24: Vienna, AT – B72
09/25: Munich, DE – Heppel & Ettlich
09/28: Zurich, CH – Papiersaal
09/29: Stuttgart, DE – Club Cann
09/30: Milan, IT – Arci Bellezza
10/01: Frankfurt, DE – St. Peters Kirche
* – with Lera Lynn
^ – with Annika Bennett
