Fresh off their debut appearance at the Newport Folk Festival last weekend, Anaïs Mitchell (whose Hadestown recently led the 2019 Tony Awards with eight wins, including ‘Best Musical’), Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats), and Josh Kaufman (Craig Finn, Josh Ritter, The National) today officially announced their new group, Bonny Light Horseman. The trio has also shared their debut single “Bonny Light Horseman,” a cover of the folk ballad that features Aaron Dessner on hi string guitar, as well as JT Bates (Big Red Machine, Phil Cook) on drums and Michael Lewis (Bon Iver) on tenor sax — both of whom also perform with Bonny Light Horseman live. Johnson explains, “This is a song about a handsome soldier who may or may not ever come home. And we named our band after it not just because it sounds kind of cool, but because it’s somewhat emblematic of what we’re trying to do here: sing you ancient love songs of timeless humanity and heartbreak. Songs that are gonna make you feel something no matter what century you’re in.” Listen to the song now below..
Their journey began with a 37d03d residency at Eaux Claires festival in 2018, where Bonny Light Horseman was ignited. From there they traveled to Berlin for the 37d03d Festival later that year. Here the project continued to develop and they recorded what would be the foundations of their forthcoming debut album. In May 2019 they performed their songs at the 37d03d festival at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY.
More information on the LP will be announced soon; in the meantime, Bonny Light Horseman will head back on the road this weekend for a stop at Pickathon, as well as in September for a run of dates that includes two shows supporting Mandolin Orange. A current itinerary is below and more dates will also be announced soon.
Bonny Light Horseman tour dates:
08/01 & 03 – Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
09/03 – Evanston, IL @ SPACE
09/04 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Frederik Meijer Gardens*
09/05 – Indianapolis, IN @ LO-FI
09/06 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium*
* supporting Mandolin Orange
