Watkins Family Hour announce new album

Watkins Family Hour

Watkins Family Hour – the acclaimed musical collective featuring Grammy Award-winning siblings Sara and Sean Watkins – will release their highly anticipated new album Brother Sister on May 8th 2020. Their first release in five years, the album focuses on the musical and lyrical chemistry between Sara and Sean—the creative core at the centre of the project. By carving out time to write together with the Family Hour in mind for the first time, they created a record that demonstrates their unique familial creative partnership while still harnessing the energy and honesty of their legendary live performances. Of the project, Sara shares:

“It felt really good to dig into the potential of two people…the primary goal of this record became to see what we could do when it is just the two of us. The arrangements and the writing were all focused on that. Listening now, I’m really proud of what we did. These are songs that would not have come out of either one of us individually and it feels like a band sound, like this is what we do, the two of us.”

Produced by Mike Viola (Jenny Lewis, Mandy Moore, J.S. Ondara), Brother Sister features seven original songs co-written by Sara and Sean as well as three new covers: Courtney Hartman and Taylor Ashton’s ‘Neighborhood Name,’ Warren Zevon’s ‘Accidentally Like A Martyr’ and Charley Jordan’s ‘Keep It Clean,’ which features special guest vocalists David Garza, Gaby Moreno and John C. Reilly. In celebration of the release, the duo will be playing select UK dates in August 2020.

The new album follows 2015’s self-titled debut, which mirrored the experience of their residency and featured special guests Fiona Apple, Don Heffington, Greg Leisz, Sebastian Steinberg and Benmont Tench. Consisting of only covers, Watkins Family Hour was released to widespread critical acclaim—The New York Times called the debut an “oak-solid debut album” while NPR Music described it as “glorious.”

Furthermore, Pitchfork praised: “When bands we like cover songs we love, our best hope to relive those special moments is usually through sideways videos recorded on cell phones and uploaded to YouTube. But with this crystalline collection, Watkins Family Hour offers a more compelling insight” and the Los Angeles Times declared, “they’ve nurtured a communal spirit that seems rarer and rarer.”

In addition to Watkins Family Hour, Sara and Sean’s acclaimed projects include I’m With Her (Sara), Fiction Family (Sean) and Nickel Creek with their friend and long-time collaborator Chris Thile, as well as their successful individual careers.

Artists’ website: www.watkinsfamilyhour.com

‘Just Another Reason’ – official video:

UK Tour 2020

Saturday 22nd August – Devon – Beautiful Days Fest
Sunday 23rd August – Dorset – Purbeck Valley Folk Fest
Tuesday 25th August – Edinburgh – Edinburgh International Festival Spiegel tent
Wednesday 26th August – London – St. Pancras Old Church
Thursday 27th August – London – St. Pancras Old Church


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