The Hanging Stars

About Event

U.K. combo the Hanging Stars specialize in a sun-dappled strain of cosmic Americana with shades of country, psych, and jangle pop. Recalling forebears like Big Star, the Byrds, and Fairport Convention, the group rose out of London in the latter half of 2010s with a succession of relaxed, but impeccably crafted albums like Over the Silvery Lake (2016) and Songs for Somewhere Else (2018). Recording between Nashville, Los Angeles, and London, they have forged a unique sonic imprint that fuses their more dominant American influences with light traces of British folk. The Hanging Stars signed with Loose Music, which released their fourth album, Hollow Heart, in 2022, followed two years later by the harmonically rich On a Golden Shore.

Fronted by singer/guitarist Richard Olsen along with bassist Sam Ferman, drummer Paulie Cobra, and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Ralla, the band recorded their debut album, 2016’s Over the Silvery Lake, between L.A. and London, leaning heavily into the West Coast vibes with pastoral harmonies and country-indebted instrumentation like banjo and pedal steel. Their follow-up, 2018’s Songs for Somewhere Else, followed a similar sonic trajectory as the band continued to pick up admirers on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the start of the next decade, pedal steel player Joe Harvey-White had joined and the Hanging Stars continued to hone their multi-layered sound on 2020’s A New Kind of Sky. Having issued their two previous albums on the band’s own Crimson Crow imprint, they signed with established U.K. indie Loose Music to record their fourth album. Produced by Scottish indie legend Edwyn Collins, Hollow Heart appeared in 2022. They applied the same formula to their fifth album, 2024’s On a Golden Shore, which bore a punchier, rock-driven sound with dense harmonies.