Ariel Posen announces "Bannatyne" and tours Europe

For Ariel Posen, songwriting and guitar playing have always gone hand-in-hand. He's spent a decade building a bridge between those two worlds, balancing his work as a hotshot instrumentalist — including collaborations with everyone from John Mayer to Tom Jones — with solo albums rooted in melody and autobiographical storytelling. The result is a career that's every bit as diverse as his music. With performances at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, his own Fender Stratocaster signature model, and a powerful voice that matches his fretwork, Posen explores uncharted territory, blurring the lines between genre and generation along the way. 

On his upcoming album, Bannatyne, that exploration leads Posen back to the place where everything began. Named after an avenue in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, it's a record about reexamining one's past in order to fully appreciate the present. Woven into the album's 12 songs are larger-than-life riffs and upbeat tempos (a nod to the 1990s rock music that soundtracked Posen's childhood), along with the syncopated grooves and explorative, unexpected textures that have always steered his work. Equally influenced by the raw energy of his live shows, where Posen has been known to plug in and stretch out showcasing the chops that prompted Rolling Stone to call him "a modern-day guitar hero", and the tight craft of his songwriting, Bannatyne is a full-circle snapshot of an artist in evolution, chasing down new horizons while still honouring his musical roots.  

His latest single, “Empty-Handed” featuring City and Colour’s Dallas Green. “This song is about the kind of regret that lingers long after everything else has moved on,” says Posen. “It’s waking up every day feeling the same weight, replaying what you lost, and trying to make sense of it. At the same time it is about owning your part in the fallout, knowing you can’t undo it, and learning to live with the echo of what could’ve been. There can be peace in the sorrow.”

Posen wrote this song and immediately heard Dallas Green’s voice on the choruses after he recorded it in the studio. Luckily for him, he called Dallas and he obliged. It was almost as if the song was written for Dallas to sing on it alongside Posen.  Ariel and I have been pals for a while now and I've always been impressed with his extraordinary guitar playing, shares Green.. “But the truth is he's got a great sense of melody in his songwriting as well. This song was stuck in my head the second I heard it. It was a pleasure to be a part of such a banger.” 

Go see Ariel Posen in February and March:

12/02:    Ebeltoft, DK - Kulturloftet
13/02:    Copenhagen, DK - Beta
14/02:    Odense, DK - Posten
15/02:    Hamburg, DE - Nochtspeicher
17/02:    Berlin, DE - Privatclub
18/02:    Hannover, DE - Lux
19/02:    Cologne, DE - Artheater
20/02:    Hengelo, NL - Metropool
22/02:    Groningen, NL - Oosterpoort
25/02:    Utrecht, NL - De Helling
26/02:    Eindhoven, NL - Muziekgebouw
27/02:    Maastricht, NL - Muziekgieterij
28/02:    Rotterdam, NL - Rotown
02/03:    Stockholm, SWE - Nalen Klubb

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