NEW ALBUM THE WEAKNESS OUT APRIL 7
ON ROUNDER RECORDS

THE WEAKNESS TOUR ON SALE NOW

TORONTO, ON – February 23, 2023 – On the heels of announcing a North American spring tour in support of his highly-anticipated upcoming album, The Weakness, Ruston Kelly has unveiled the second preview from the project: Mending Song. The first track that Kelly completed for The Weakness, Mending Song helped to spark the free-flowing creativity that ultimately fueled all his songwriting for the album, which will be released on April 7 by Rounder Records. Buy/stream Mending Song here, and pre-order The Weakness here.

Although he penned most of the new LP at home in Portland, Tennessee, Mending Song took shape during a solo trip to California's Joshua Tree. “I rented this little cabin out on 22 acres, just me and the coyotes, and ended up checking out a shop nearby and buying a baritone ukulele,” Kelly says. “I remember thinking, ‘This is so stupid — I’m trying to be that guy, going out to some cabin and writing my opus. Why don’t I just have some fun?’” Once he’d loosened up, Kelly came up with a jangly ukulele riff and opening lyric that soon gave way to the autobiographical storytelling of Mending Song: “Something grew up twisted in me / Ripping all the seams / But I was mended by the love of my momma / To fight the devils down in me.”

Threaded with sweetly ethereal tones sculpted through producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Nate Mercereau’s, use of guitar-based synth, Mending Song was built from a voice-note demo recorded in Kelly’s L.A. hotel room, amplifying its unfettered emotion to sublime effect. “You can hear the dryer running in the background, but there’s something really special about the feel of that recording,” Kelly adds.

Mending Song is the follow-up to Kelly’s first single from the record, The Weakness, which was released last month. Writing in Rolling Stone, Jon Freeman proclaimed it a “massive rock anthem,” while WFUV’s Kara Manning praised the “shimmering, slow burn of a song,” with its “ghostly, lushly-conceived rock arrangements.”
 
Watch the Mending Song video here, which was directed, produced and edited by Bella Mazzola, and filmed by Andy Hawkes and Bella Mazzola.

The Weakness tour begins April 12 at Louisville’s Mercury Ballroom and will find Kelly playing NYC’s Webster Hall (April 21), Chicago’s House of Blues (April 29) and Los Angeles’s The Fonda Theater (May 14), and ending with a hometown show at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater (June 2) with Jenny Lewis opening. Kelly will later head to Toronto on September 17. Information about tickets and VIP packages, which include an intimate soundcheck performance and Q&A, can be found at https://www.rustonkelly.com.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
June 17 – Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park, Atlanta, GA – SOLD OUT
June 18 – Firefly Distillery, Charleston, SC – SOLD OUT
August 31 – Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY – SOLD OUT
September 12 – KEMBA Live!, Columbus, OH
September 13 – St. Louis Music Park – Maryland Heights, MO – SOLD OUT
September 15 – TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park, Indianapolis, IN – SOLD OUT
September 16 – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, Sterling Heights, MI – SOLD OUT
September 17 – Budweiser Stage, Toronto, ON

DOWNLOAD – press photo | DOWNLOAD – album cover artwork