HORSEBATH's first European tour will kick off on Monday

HORSEBATH's debut album, Another Farewell, is a reflection of their life on the road, rooted in the rugged landscapes of ever-changing Canada, and nurtured by a bond of love, loss and pursuit.

"We set sail from Nova Scotia en route to Montreal. There we spent a couple weeks in a live-in rehearsal space, writing and arranging the songs that would be recorded, some old, some new. Many different ideas were presented and thrown out in our effort to make what we felt was a cohesive album. With multiple writers, it was inevitable that there would be an eclectic array of styles."

HORSEBATH, give fair warning in the first song off their debut album: “It’s hard to love, hard to love, hard to love me,” goes the repeated refrain. A later lyric admits understanding “the weakness of a moving man,” referring to the ways the band’s heavy touring schedule disrupts relationships, romantic or otherwise. It might sound presumptuous or even aspirational for a band to fill its debut with songs about rootlessness and the road, as though the quintet might actually be looking forward to all those good-byes and all those long drives. But HORSEBATH has been rambling around Canada for a few years now, putting thousands of miles on the odometer as they’ve defined a distinctive balance of rambunctious barroom energy and rootsy, open-plains melodicism. Another Farewell is an album whose outsize musical palette—weird cowboy songs, streamlined saloon rockers, big-hearted folk tracks, pastoral psychedelia—is rooted in their wanderlust.

Playing songs about roaming, HORSEBATH make no bones about gesturing toward other artists who’ve played songs about roaming. They venerate The Band, of course, but also Neil Young, the Buckaroos, Hank Williams, and The International Submarine Band, and they ignore the skeleton frames of burned-out bands who’ve driven these same highways. “In the Shade” has more than a bit of Gram Parsons’ cosmic country sound, but HORSEBATH find unexpected ways to convey spaciness, primarily by filling every empty space with swirls of ominous organ chords. It all makes the chorus—“I run from the sun and I hide in the shade”—sound that much more haunted, like Mutter is crawling out of a dark hole.

"Everything we did was an experiment of some kind, improvising with instruments, parts, and lyrics. As a band known for our raw and energetic live performances, the songs were best captured using the classic live-off-the-floor approach."

European dates are coming up:

06/10: Eindhoven, NL - Americana Mondays
08/10: Göteborg, SWE - Pustervik
09/10: Stockholm, SWE - Klubb Nalen
10/10: Falkenberg, SWE - Tryckhallen
11/10: Copenhagen, DK - Råhuset
12/10: Malmö, SWE - Annelundsgården
15/10: Nottingham, UK - The Chapel at The Angel Microbrewery
16/10: Glasgow, UK - Hug and Pint
17/10: High Peak, UK - The Strines Nightingale
18/10: London, UK - The Waiting Room
22/10: Valencia, ESP - Loco CLub
23/10: Madrid, ESP - Clamores
24/10: Zaragoza, ESP - Rock And Blues
26/10: Santander, ESP - Little Bobby
28/10: Hoogezand, NL - Theater 't Kielzog
29/10: Utrecht, NL - TivoliVredenburg 
30/10: Leiden, NL - Q-Bus
01/11: Groningen, NL - Take Root